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Comment by didgeoridoo | Hacker News Reader

Can anyone explain how CamScanner fits into all this? I thought it was just a scanning app — can you send money with it?

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Looks like India banned it as well.

https://www.india.com/viral/it-has-been-banned-delhi-judge-o...

It had a trojan.

It is beyond me why anyone would trust an app owned by Tencent and has intrusive ads, whereas the alternatives for most people (Adobe / MS) offerings are free.

America somehow seems to have this political correctness complex. There is nothing wrong being weary of such things.

Being wary in part or in full because an app or is owned, operated, or developed in China is where you run into issues.

Being wary because you find Tencent specifically untrustworthy is fine.

In this specific CamScanner context, I think it has less to do with political correctness and more to do with the fact that CamScanner was one of the first apps in the marketplace that had this ability to produce half-decent scans through a smartphone camera. I remember using it to scan class notes ~6 years ago, long before Google Drive shipped it as native capability.

Indeed, if my social circle's "woke" parts are anything to measure by, active efforts are being made to find alternatives to made-in-china products. Most people are able to make the distinction between the despotic Chinese government and the average Chinese citizen.

i used to have this app. like many it sold for a single price initially, then later someone else bought the rights to it and it wanted a subscription and became loaded with trackers.

So I think its the trackers part that makes it bannable.

The article says that the "majority of app were payment platforms".

I would interpret it with the quote of Trump: "by accessing personal electronic devices such as smartphones, tablets, and computers, Chinese connected software applications can access and capture vast swaths of information from users, including sensitive personally identifiable information and private information."

I think with the idea of "camera scanning" they will require authorization and they will capture sensible informations of US citizens. I think that's the idea behind this kind of ban...

Wait - "Chinese software applications can access and capture vast swaths of information from users, including sensitive personally identifiable information and private information" Doing this is now a bad thing? I thought it was the fundamental idea behind the tech industry.

> I thought it was the fundamental idea behind the tech industry.

It is. But it seems that lately governments in their own silos are thinking I can do it, you cant.

PS: Not saying in any way to allow capture of vast swaths of information to anyone :)

It is (sadly) but also it depends where that data goes. From the US government perspective:

- data goes to US corporations == fine

- data goes to CCP == not fine

Following the very same logic, the EU could and should completely ban the sale of Windows 10.

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