zlacker

>>el_dud+(OP)
Before I went to China I bought a burner phone, mainly to install WeChat (which is also a kind of malware and also "required" in China). Basic Android phones are not too expensive these days - I wonder if it will become commonplace to own several and physically separate your life across them?

FWIW I got a Huawei phone (Honor 10 Lite) for under 200 EUR, but much cheaper phones than that are available.

Edit: To be clear this is not to avoid Chinese surveillance. That's unavoidable whatever you do because China is a police state. It's to separate out that surveillance from my contacts and my regular life at home. (I also think it's at least arguable that the Chinese government has a duty to look closely at what foreigners are up to. It's not an argument that I agree with myself very much because it infringes freedom while also making the wrong trade-offs, but given we live in a world of nation states it follows logically from that.)

>>rwmj+k6
Kind of ironic you bought a burner phone to avoid Chinese surveillance then turn around and buy a Huawei phone

>>mfatic+D8
What difference does it make? Even if the Huawei phone is doing surveillance on its own (and no one credible has ever come up with evidence that this is the case, even though it would be easy to discover), it's got WeChat on it which we know scans every possible Android location and network API all the time and is in constant encrypted communication with the mothership.