
Internet Users in China Expect to Be Tracked. Now, They Want Privacy - maxwell
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/04/business/china-alibaba-privacy.html
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ilamont
_In a statement, Tencent said that the company did not store the chat history
of users and that it would never use chat history for big data analytics. The
comments were met with widespread disbelief: WeChat users have been arrested
over what they’ve said on the app, conversations have turned up as evidence in
court proceedings, and activists have reported being followed based on WeChat
conversations._

Unfortunately, WeChat is so firmly embedded in social and commercial
activities that it's very difficult to go cold turkey.

Nightmare scenario for people outside of China would be some sort of
Facebook/WeChat partnership or acquisition. Note that Zuckerberg is very keen
on breaking into this market, and has been buttering up Chinese officials and
citizens for years to pave the way (see "Why would Mark Zuckerberg want
Facebook employees to read the Chinese President's book?",
[https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2014/12/08...](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2014/12/08/why-
does-mark-zuckerberg-want-facebook-employees-to-read-the-chinese-presidents-
book/))

