

Baidu IME secretly transmitting Japanese users’ data - nullpo
http://ajw.asahi.com/article/behind_news/social_affairs/AJ201312260081

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logicchains
I lived in China for a couple of years, and it was generally accepted among
the technologically savvy people I knew that most large web/software companies
(Baidu, Tencent, Sina) spied on their users for the Chinese government.

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moondowner
Related: The Transparent Chinese
[http://cn.nytimes.com/opinion/20131120/c20murong/en-
us/](http://cn.nytimes.com/opinion/20131120/c20murong/en-us/)

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keda
AFAIK, Google IME also sends user phases to their index of popular words, but
they do allow you to turn it off.

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Brakenshire
Baidu has a switch which apparently allows users to stop sending data, but it
doesn't do anything:

> Although this automatic data transmitting function is switched off in the
> default setting, Sugiura found that Baidu IME secretly sends users’
> information even when the function is turned off.

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w1ntermute
Does anyone actually use the Baidu IME? Most people I know just use the IME
built into the OS.

Simeji, on the other hand, is a bigger concern - it's a very popular Japanese
keyboard for Android.

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fidotron
Isn't Simeji a brand of Baidu?

Either way, this is one hell of an information leak if the keyboard app is
sending everything you type in somewhere else.

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w1ntermute
> Isn't Simeji a brand of Baidu?

Simeji was originally created by an indie dev, but then Baidu bought the app.

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ziyan
Baidu has denied such allegation, claiming that:

1\. It's a cloud based IME. Some data is uploaded to improve user experience.

2\. Data upload is encrypted therefore no privacy concerns.

3\. Servers are located in Japan and complies with local regulations.

[http://tech.qq.com/a/20131226/014894.htm](http://tech.qq.com/a/20131226/014894.htm)
(Don't shoot the messenger.)

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xdd
The same as Google IME, except google has a evil virus-like secret upgrade
popup.

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kohsuke
Nope. See their FAQ
[https://support.google.com/ime/japanese/answer/166771?hl=ja](https://support.google.com/ime/japanese/answer/166771?hl=ja)
which states otherwise.

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throwaway_yy2Di
Now I'm having trouble logging in to GMail: that link set a cookie saving my
language as Japanese! D:

edit: Found the "language" option on Google sign-in -- it's the scroller in
the bottom right labelled "日本語". There's a small blue logo next to it that
looks like the UN flag. Hope this helped someone.

edit #2: It's also in the URL, replace /intl/jp/ with /intl/en/ (for English)

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MBCook
日本語 means "Japanese" (as a language), if you ever get into such a situation
again.

