Privacy

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A place to discuss privacy and freedom in the digital world.

Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.

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Privacy advise internship China (lemmy.dbzer0.com)

submitted 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) by intern_chinaa@lemmy.dbzer0.com to c/privacy@lemmy.ml

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I’m an European student heading to Shanghai for an internship where debit and credit cards are rarely accepted. Locals recommend using Alipay for payments, but I have heard mixed results about compatibility with European credit cards. Some claim credit cards don’t work at all with Alipay, while others say they have zero issues. It was suggested to get a Wise or Revolut card to use with Alipay. What are your thoughts on which option is more privacy friendly or if there are better alternatives.

I have also been advised to get a VPN for China. While I self-host a VPN, I planned to add Mullvad because of its obfuscation techniques. Except it was recommended to get LetsVPN or Astrill, they said because they work the best in China and that is what everyone uses. What are your thoughts on which VPN I should get? Also any other suggestion or advise for my internship in Shanghai are appreciated.

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[–] doodoo_wizard@lemmy.ml 11 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Everything works fine. Stop worrying.

If you want to be 100% sure (and this is smart in general in all of life!), open a bank account and get a credit card tied to it for payments. Go to taobao or AliExpress or something where Alipay or WeChat are used and try them out with your new financial details.

It doesn’t matter what credit card you get because credit cards are an incredibly not private method of paying for stuff and merchants, processors and everyone else are strongly incentivized to collect and sell user transaction data.

This is going to sound counterintuitive, but don’t get a vpn to bypass the firewall if you don’t have a non-espionage reason to do so. The reason I say that is you’re pitting yourself against a nations cybersecurity people and there’s a good chance they’re smarter than you. It would be better to be able to say “I saw on reddit that I could use this vpn to access this forum for a game I play” and then show the cops all your cringey posts and your hundreds of hours of playtime than to say “I wasn’t doing anything!” or “I just value my privacy!”.

[–] utopiah@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 day ago

there’s a good chance they’re smarter than you.

Not really BUT they are definitely more specialized and have a lot more dedicated resources, including other dedicated people, who are paid to get information on you and your behavior. One does not have to be "smart" to excel in security compared to a normal user who cares very little.

That being said, no matter how smart and how much resource they have, they also can't break encryption. They can though ask a cop to come to your place and incarcerate your regardless. So... do with that what you will.

[–] intern_chinaa@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 1 day ago

Thanks for the advice, good to hear the flip side of the coin.