One of China’s most popular apps has the ability to spy on its users | Hacker News Reader

One of China’s most popular apps has the ability to spy on its users

cnn.com

24 pointskrn14 comments

The key part:

> Toshin found Pinduoduo to have exploited about 50 Android system vulnerabilities. Most of the exploits were tailor made for customized parts known as the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) code, which tends to be audited less often than AOSP and is therefore more prone to vulnerabilities, he said.

> Pinduoduo also exploited a number of AOSP vulnerabilities, including one which was flagged by Toshin to Google in February 2022. Google fixed the bug this March, he said.

That's probably a good enough reason to stick with Pixel smartphones, if choosing Android.

LineageOS

Fun story: TouchPal, the default keyboard on my old HTC phone, was loaded with malware.

But nobody found out till HTC stopped supporting it, so it just... stayed there, uninstallable because its a system app, unless you removed it with adb.

Point being that this is probably the tip of an iceberg. Datamining Android malware isnt always so easy to find.

Semi off topic, but I was listening to an NPR show earlier today and they pointed out that in China TicTok feeds focus on science experiments, educational ideas, etc.

The pundit said it was educational material in China, and addictive content in The West.

informational warfare

Pure nonsense. If China’s TikTok (or douyin to be accurate) were focused on those, it would never have been popular in the first place.

Source: I am Chinese who does use douyin and have seen much discussion on China’s Internet on how douyin is addictive and damaging to children.

Douyin is still heavily censored like all other Chinese platforms, right? If so, why are the above content restrictions so unbelievable?

I can believe that there may be a policy to push educational material to kids but that doesn't contradict with the claim that such content doesn't drive traffic. So the initial claim about what's actually viewed on Douyin is way off the mark.

I still don't follow. You accept that content on Douyin is controlled, but not to the degree that's being reported? And that censorship is absolute, but the engineering of all content flows based on age doesn't exist ?

No I am saying that all that engineering could reveal human desire but not necessarily change it. They could push educational content to children but that doesn't mean children would take it. Also it is well known Douyin's focus and success lies in live streaming e-commerce.

> They could push educational content to children but that doesn't mean children would take it.

Isn't that a different point to the one being made? I thought you were arguing that pushing positive content to kids was an overblown story for some reason. That it wasn't really happening.

Not really. Douyin is heavily into e-commerce live streaming, more like the Home Shopping Network if you will.

I found NPR to be borderline propaganda mouthpieces for China. They strangely find ways to romanticize what's going on here.

Thats definitely not true as I live there.

Just one?? I guess that's progress!

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