this post was submitted on 17 Jul 2025

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156

Massistant - new tool used by Chinese government to spy on seized phones (techcrunch.com)

submitted 2 weeks ago by drmoose@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world

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[–] cheese_greater@lemmy.world 51 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

M'assistant

[–] kambusha@sh.itjust.works 30 points 2 weeks ago

tips hat

[–] voytrekk@sopuli.xyz 39 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Another reason to take a burner instead if you have to travel to China.

[+] DeathByBigSad@sh.itjust.works 40 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 11 hours ago) (2 children)

[deleted]

[–] voytrekk@sopuli.xyz 4 points 2 weeks ago

True, but some people may not have a choice because of work or family.

[–] LadyAutumn@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

As though the US didnt used to spy on its citizens lol

[+] DeathByBigSad@sh.itjust.works 19 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 11 hours ago) (1 children)

[deleted]

[–] LadyAutumn@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Thats a very strange place to draw a line in the sand when they were literally exposed wire tapping essentially the entire population of the country and mass harvesting private data.

[–] WhyJiffie@sh.itjust.works 2 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

wire tapping is one thing, seizing and/or searching phones is another. while both are bad obviously, you can usually protect yourself against wiretapping by using secure communication systems, which phone calls is not a part of

[–] LadyAutumn@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

I think we live in a time period where seizing/searching phones doesn't need the physical device to be present. They just have to ask Google and Meta to do it for them. Different than literally combing through the memory on the device, but not much. It's why FOSS and selfhosting matters so much. What Google and Meta don't have, they can't just take.

That being said I would bring a burner if I went to the US. Lord knows I have said more than my fair share of critical things about the US government lol

[–] WhyJiffie@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 weeks ago

They just have to ask Google and Meta to do it for them.

I would say you can protect yourself against that too. no need to store sensitive info on those silos. google is more complicated with how deep access those fuckers have to virtually all phones, but if you are slightly determined that can be solved too.

I agree on all other points

[–] SheeEttin@lemmy.zip 6 points 2 weeks ago

Or anywhere, really.

[–] Treczoks@lemmy.world 9 points 2 weeks ago

Of course they will try to get everything from your phone. They are neither better nor worse than their American counterparts.

I would never take a personal PC or phone into either country, and whatever I'd bring back I would consider compromized.

[–] Jimmycakes@lemmy.world 0 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Just mail yourself your real phone

[–] WhatAmLemmy@lemmy.world 6 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

That's not much better tbh. Remote VPN into your computer/NAS at home, otherwise just live with a burner while you're there.

[–] WhyJiffie@sh.itjust.works 2 points 2 weeks ago

and how do you keep the vpn credentials secure?