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...)
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...)