Let me put things this way: after my last AliExpress purchase I was targetted for the first time in my life by a PayPal fishing phone call from India (starting with a pre-recorded message in my native language but then switching to some guy speaking English with an Indian accent).
Somebody I know has been targetted twice by “you package is awaiting at customs” phishing messages after making purchases at AliExpress.
Maybe coincidence, maybe AliExpress is having their trade payment processing ops outsourced to somebody that sells it to people that will use it to fraudulently pass themselves as a natural entity involved in the purchase process (like PayPal or the destination country’s Customs) or maybe AliExpress themselves sell that data. Judging by the amount of outright fraudulent sales claims there (the capacity of any power storage devices is at times hilarious, as is the output wattage of solar panels and storage capacity of external SSDs), my bet is the latter, though if it’s not that totally not giving a shit about the risk of the second possibility is almost a certainty.
That kind of “why should I care” bullshit you’re peddling is exactly the same kind of bullshit that was peddled a decade and a half ago about having one’s e-mail with Google, and look at were we are now.
Unless you’re stupidly isolated from it (not even giving them your e-mail), you’re going to leak stuff that can be used against you, even if only by criminals (and the authorities in China couldn’t give a rat’s arse about their people swindling or stealing from laowai).
Like in the US, it’s going to be “Free Enterprise” abusing data about even if the local authorities don’t really care about you.
In this case, you use common sense and be suspicious of anyone with a foreign accent making unsolicited phone calls…especially those with Indian accents. The ones you should look out for are the scams that involve AI spoofing a family member’s voice.
The less info about you is out there, the less handles they have to pass themselves for those who can legitimatelly ask money from you or which control access to your money, be they family, friends, your bank, the government and so on.
They can’t spoof a family member’s voice if they don’t know who is your family or have access to samples of their voice - both things often obtainable via Facebook or any Chinese equivalent one might be tempted to use instead.
Anyways, my point is that Chinese companies are inherently no more trustworthy than American ones, they’re just not as bad yet because they don’t yet have the same access to masses and masses of personal information for people all over the World - once they do, they’ll be just as bad because regulation in China are also shit and they don’t give a damn about foreigners.
Personally I have given up on that. I try to either use false information when they don’t need the real data or throwaway" emails and SEPA and one time credit card numbers for banking stuff.
I don’t trust any company with my data ever, so I’m constantly paranoid in a way.
For now.
The problem is that once it’s out there, you can’t take it back.
Okay but what’s the risk if the cccp will find out I can’t write a fucking yaml for the life of me?
They can hold it against you if they take over whatever country you are from.
Your job chip implant will make you a delivery boy instead of a programmer.
Let me put things this way: after my last AliExpress purchase I was targetted for the first time in my life by a PayPal fishing phone call from India (starting with a pre-recorded message in my native language but then switching to some guy speaking English with an Indian accent).
Somebody I know has been targetted twice by “you package is awaiting at customs” phishing messages after making purchases at AliExpress.
Maybe coincidence, maybe AliExpress is having their trade payment processing ops outsourced to somebody that sells it to people that will use it to fraudulently pass themselves as a natural entity involved in the purchase process (like PayPal or the destination country’s Customs) or maybe AliExpress themselves sell that data. Judging by the amount of outright fraudulent sales claims there (the capacity of any power storage devices is at times hilarious, as is the output wattage of solar panels and storage capacity of external SSDs), my bet is the latter, though if it’s not that totally not giving a shit about the risk of the second possibility is almost a certainty.
That kind of “why should I care” bullshit you’re peddling is exactly the same kind of bullshit that was peddled a decade and a half ago about having one’s e-mail with Google, and look at were we are now.
Unless you’re stupidly isolated from it (not even giving them your e-mail), you’re going to leak stuff that can be used against you, even if only by criminals (and the authorities in China couldn’t give a rat’s arse about their people swindling or stealing from laowai).
Like in the US, it’s going to be “Free Enterprise” abusing data about even if the local authorities don’t really care about you.
In this case, you use common sense and be suspicious of anyone with a foreign accent making unsolicited phone calls…especially those with Indian accents. The ones you should look out for are the scams that involve AI spoofing a family member’s voice.
The less info about you is out there, the less handles they have to pass themselves for those who can legitimatelly ask money from you or which control access to your money, be they family, friends, your bank, the government and so on.
They can’t spoof a family member’s voice if they don’t know who is your family or have access to samples of their voice - both things often obtainable via Facebook or any Chinese equivalent one might be tempted to use instead.
Anyways, my point is that Chinese companies are inherently no more trustworthy than American ones, they’re just not as bad yet because they don’t yet have the same access to masses and masses of personal information for people all over the World - once they do, they’ll be just as bad because regulation in China are also shit and they don’t give a damn about foreigners.
Of course.
Personally I have given up on that. I try to either use false information when they don’t need the real data or throwaway" emails and SEPA and one time credit card numbers for banking stuff.
I don’t trust any company with my data ever, so I’m constantly paranoid in a way.