Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Chinese Government Admits Collection of Deleted WeChat Messages (techcrunch.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the questionable-data-collection-tactics dept.

The South China Morning Post reported over the weekend that Chinese authorities have the capability of retrieving deleted messages from the WeChat app. The newspaper noted that an anti-corruption commission in Hefei province posted Saturday to social media that it has "retrieved a series of deleted WeChat conversations from a subject" as part of an investigation. TechCrunch reports: The post was deleted Sunday, but not before many had seen it and understood the ramifications. Tencent, which operates the WeChat service used by nearly a billion people (including myself), explained in a statement that "WeChat does not store any chat histories -- they are only stored on users' phones and computers." The technical details of this storage were not disclosed, but it seems clear from the commission's post that they are accessible in some way to interested authorities, as many have suspected for years. The app does, of course, comply with other government requirements, such as censoring certain topics.

39 comments

  1. Easy, and not even lying.... by magarity · · Score: 1

    Just set up some government server(s) as a "user's computer" and subscribe it to every WeChat group. Presto, all the chat history is only stored on users' computers.

    1. Re:Easy, and not even lying.... by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The Chinese government doesn't need to lie. They WANT their citizens to know they are being watched. Chinese censorship works mostly through deterrence.

    2. Re:Easy, and not even lying.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You know nothing about Chinese censorship apparently.

    3. Re:Easy, and not even lying.... by alvinrod · · Score: 3, Informative

      To be fair, that's how most laws work. Look at the U.S. with respect to copyright. The government can't even investigate or prosecute .01% of cases because its so pervasive. By nailing a few unlucky bastards to the wall and making a big show of force they hope that the rest will fall in line.

      I'm under the impression that if streaming services and digital access had been further stifled as the content cartel would have liked, we would have changed copyright laws as a result of popular ballot initiative because a majority would be pirating by this point due to onerous restrictions on accessing content.

      China has the benefit of most of the population remembering a time when even allegations of misbehavior could get you sent to a reeducation camp of sorts to straighten out that improper attitude. Over time that will fade and so will China's propensity for trying to exert this level of control.

    4. Re:Easy, and not even lying.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The Chinese government doesn't need to lie. They WANT their citizens to know they are being watched. Chinese censorship works mostly through deterrence.

      Unlike their counterparts in America, which does the same collection, but DO NOT WANT their citizen to know they are being watched

      In other words, how safe is your 'one time, so-called read-and-destroyed messages', like the ones in Snapchat?

      Are you sure that NSA isn't collecting those 'deleted' messages?

    5. Re:Easy, and not even lying.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Tencent doesn't store anything. They simply forward everything to the authorities, who stores everything.

  2. Those are the best ones by SuperKendall · · Score: 2

    If you are any government agency looking to collect the best intel, deleted messages are pretty obviously the most valuable as people generally only delete things they care about, useless things they never bother to remove.

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
  3. WeChat is creepy as hell by StickyKeys · · Score: 5, Informative

    I use it to communicate with a Chinese friend since WhatsApp is blocked. I discovered that if I send them a URL to something on my server and then tail the logs, I see two separate requests from two different IPs, one is my friend and the other is some unknown IP in China.

    1. Re: WeChat is creepy as hell by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Meh, thatâ(TM)s nothing. I used WeChat to communicate with a love interest who lives in China but we met in France. Our message communication was actively sabotaged by messages being randomly delayed, dropped and on a few occasions changed in transit. Needless to say, we grew apart quite fast, and after she seemingly got angry and me and asked to stop communication which I did. Couple of years later she called me for my birthday and asked why I stopped talking to her out of a sudden, and that as a result she married someone else. She said she never told me to stop communicating with her and was quite hurt that I did. ...

    2. Re:WeChat is creepy as hell by mea_culpa · · Score: 1

      It's probably WeChat generating a preview. There is far too much traffic for censors to check every URL. Chinese most likely have a direct feed to WeChat's servers much like the NSA had (probably still does) when Snowden revealed Prism.

    3. Re: WeChat is creepy as hell by Tablizer · · Score: 1

      Our message communication was actively sabotaged by messages being randomly delayed, dropped and on a few occasions changed in transit...She said she never told me to stop communicating with her and was quite hurt that I did.

      Perhaps we should consider Hanlon's razor: it's just sloppy tech instead of intentional message tinkering. I can list tons of crapware that only half works.

      --
      Table-ized A.I.
    4. Re:WeChat is creepy as hell by StickyKeys · · Score: 1

      Maybe, it specifically happens when you click/tap the link so probably would be too late to generate a preview. It's not snooped on when the URL is originally transmitted.

  4. wow! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'm SHOCKED.

  5. Ummmm ... it's China ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Why on Earth is anybody surprised that China, of all countries, does this kind of stuff?

    They don't give a damn about their citizens, just all-pervasive control by the party.

    This is kind of what they do. They're hardly a benign and friendly government.

  6. In Soviet China... by dryriver · · Score: 2

    ... YOU are the deleted message!

    --
    Why did the chicken cross the road? Because Elon Musk put an AI chip in its head.
    1. Re:In Soviet China... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Get it right, sheesh.

      In Soviet China, message deletes YOU!

  7. Stupidity by 110010001000 · · Score: 2

    How is this any different than any other chat app? They all store your messages (forever) on their servers. There is no such thing as deleted messages. And for you who think "this is China. It doesn't happen here", I don't know what you think goes on in the tech industry. They aren't out to provide you with "free" services.

    1. Re:Stupidity by johanw · · Score: 1

      No, WhatsApp does not do that, and Signal certainly doesn't. Both can't read the contents of the messages anytway, even if they wanted to.

    2. Re:Stupidity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They claimed they didn't store your messages forever on their servers. They explicitly claimed the conversation was only ever stored on the user's devices. That's what the difference is between this and other chat apps. WeChat lied.

  8. well yeah by Ryanrule · · Score: 1

    we chat is govt owned and controlled.

  9. This is just the surface ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Everything you post in the WeChat app is saved. Every group sufficiently large has a human monitor (plus the AI monitor). And don't be surprised if WeChat app itself has a backdoor to hack into your iPhone or Android .......

  10. Communism by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Our largest trading partner is not a democracy - and tramples human rights as a matter of course - yet we constantly vilify other nations for political expediency.

    1. Re:Communism by johanw · · Score: 1

      At least China doesn't start wars all around the planet.

    2. Re: Communism by magarity · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Thet don't need to. The Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution killed as many people as the entire second world war.

    3. Re: Communism by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yet.

    4. Re: Communism by Tablizer · · Score: 1

      Indeed. While they haven't yet, if they did, it would be big and nasty. They've been getting aggressive lately over disputed islands, and are constantly threatening Taiwan. Unlike democracies, they can order tens of millions to war and few would challenge the decision.

      --
      Table-ized A.I.
    5. Re: Communism by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How well did your challenging do in the MidEast? How many wars did it stop....yea thought so.

    6. Re: Communism by Tablizer · · Score: 1

      Terrorism is a real problem, US just got the targets wrong.

      --
      Table-ized A.I.
    7. Re: Communism by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So terrorists are real, you have 'people who will stop wars' But they then went and invaded the wrong country by mistake?
      Something doesn't add up there...
      You have way more warmongering cheerleaders than you do sensible people standing up against wars.

    8. Re: Communism by Tablizer · · Score: 1

      We'll see how China deals with terrorism as it gets more influential...

      --
      Table-ized A.I.
    9. Re: Communism by kaatochacha · · Score: 1

      We can already see. They just kill large groups of people Google Up china uyghur

  11. Re:Trump will die in prison either way though by johanw · · Score: 0

    Do you think he'll get a cell next to Hillary?

  12. Or something by Impy+the+Impiuos+Imp · · Score: 2

    an anti-corruption commission in Hefei province posted Saturday to social media that it has "Looked in the mirror and realized anti-corruption is really corruption defending a dictator,, so we immediately suicided."

    Well maybe there is a god.

    --
    (-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
  13. Re:Trump will die in prison either way though by crimson+tsunami · · Score: 1

    Even if Trump goes to prison, it's not like everyone who voted for him or supports him will have to join him there.

  14. Re:Trump will die in prison either way though by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Shhhhh. Dont' ruin the fantasy. He's dreaming about it while waiting for Mom to bring down his hot chocolate.