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Kindle Allowing Chinese Unfettered Access To Web

Posted by Soulskill on from the not-for-long dept.

jcl-xen0n writes "Apparently, some Chinese Kindle owners have discovered that they are able to access banned sites such as Twitter and Facebook without a problem. The article speculates that Amazon may be operating a local equivalent to Amazon Whispernet with a Chinese 3G provider. Professor Lawrence Yeung Kwan, of the University of Hong Kong's electrical and electronic engineering department, told the paper that mainland internet patrols might have overlooked the gadget (perhaps because they consider it solely a tool to purchase books). How long before Kindle traffic is locked down?"

4 of 138 comments (clear)

  1. Now that everyone is talking about it... by __aagmrb7289 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I'd guess it won't be long. Is there any reason that people needed to publish this information? Is this stuff that people "must know" - to the point where it's worth getting it shut down? This seems pretty dumb to me.

  2. Works for Droid too by kefler · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Was just in China last week. Own a CDMA Droid 1, which was on international roaming (1x speed). I noticed I could access facebook, so I tried a few other things. Long story short, I was able to access the wikipedia article on Tienamen square while IN tienamen square. Well, briefly then I put the phone away and got out of sight.

    1. Re:Works for Droid too by xnpu · · Score: 5, Informative

      Like I said in my other post. Anyone using any device with a non-Chinese simcard has full Internet access.

      You don't have to put your phone out of sight - it's fully legal as long as you do not share your device or the content retrieved with a Chinese national.

  3. This has been possible for years by xnpu · · Score: 5, Informative

    This has nothing to do with the kindle and everything with foreign simcards.

    Foreign simcards have always been able to access the uncensored Internet in China, simply due to how roaming works. (Likewise a Chinese simcard in a western country will still find the Internet in it's censored form.) European pre-paid simcards have been traded in China for years now.

    Of course an article about a 'belgian simcard' isn't nearly as internesting as the Kindle or i-Anything, but this is non-news nontheless.