Is WeChat safe to use in the US?

https://reports.exodus-privacy.eu.org/en/reports/com.tencent.mm/latest/

It requires 71 permissions, which is pretty much full access to your device.

Holy shit. Nope. Not going there.
- Why not? Beijing is lovely this time of year.
This is a huge red flag. Unless they have a strong reason to believe otherwise no one should ever install an app with permissions like that.
- A huge red flag you say?
- Isn't WeChat the app that is used for everything in China? It's not just a communication app. So yes, there is more than one reason for it. A lot of its probably required to perform so many functions, but also they are collecting everything on you too.
- I mean it's tencent not sure what anyone expected

Safe in that it cannot physically harm you, otherwise, no.

Also, under normal use, you can not become pregnant. Especially if you are a guy.
- Depends on your definition of normal use

That depends what you mean by "safe".

You should expect that any WeChat account can be accessed & controlled by China government.

I hopped onto Matrix after seeing Lemmy had a field for entering your Matrix info into and while I have no one to really talk to with it yet, I like that it's basically decentralized Discord and uses encryption on every message sent.

I need to learn how to use Matrix...
- I did yesterday. A few more hurdles than Lemmy for sure, but quite lovely
It's a good way to see how Lemmy development is going

Is it going to scan my phone for credit card info and contacts etc.

It is. Contacts at least.

But it's not like every single other instant messaging or social media app, even from the west, won't scan it. You only have a choice of whether you want your data to be sent to ad companies or the CCP. Unless of course you're using something like Signal.

Card info no, why would it, they have their own payment systems over there, and your credit is of no interest to them.

Contacts, yes if you allow it.

It's no worse than installing Facebook.

Use a backup phone that's had all its data reset.

It's no worse than installing Facebook

Which is a pretty damn low bar. I get what you're saying, but comparing it to The Zucc isn't doing it any favors. Facebook will mine out absolutely every piece of data that isn't nailed down and infer the rest from what they can cross-reference.
- That's what I meant. People don't think twice about installing fb or twitter but freak out about the idea of Chinese apps. Even if it's all the same crap.

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Lol this would be for talking to my Chinese coworkers. But from what I’m reading I will find an alternative. Maybe LinkedIn messaging.
- Communicating with people in China is difficult. For your own security, I'd use something like Skype. If that's not working anymore then ask your coworkers to install a VPN so they can use WhatsApp or signal or Line.

If you don't feel comfortable using it, talk to your coworkers about your concern and see what they think, and ask them if they are more comfortable switching to something else for work.

When my relatives went to China, I did a factory reset on an old phone and installed only WeChat on it, used that to communicate. It was only for a few months, worked for me, might work for you?

That is an interesting idea!!

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Most modern mobile operating systems have permission control, meaning it can't just access everything on your phone. Access to your files, photos, camera, mic, location, and etc. can be controlled by your phone's settings. However, there are things that cannot be controlled. Many sensors do no require special permissions to access, orientation, gyroscope, accelerometer. Device ID like imei and serial numbers may be accessible, depending on your os. Now I've never heard of Wechat having malicious code, but if it does, it could gain unauthorized access to your device data. Apps stores tend to not allow malware on their platforms so the Google Play and Apple Appstore versions are probably not malware, but it can become spyware if you grant it enough permissions.

Edit: Also, Wechat requires internet access to work, so any data you input can be accessible to the company. Now Wechat is owned by Tencent, a Chinese company. China is infamous for requiring companies to share data with the government. So everything you send through the app can be assumed to be in the hands of the government of China

You probably shouldn't trust it. Be aware that the CCP will have access to whatever WeChat has access to. Also WeChat will censor/report things based on CCP demands. This might be more important if you have friends and family the CCP can touch or talk to people with that concern.

More modern phones ask for permission to give an app access to contacts or whatever but the app will probably ask. I wouldn't put it past them to have some sort of exploit but they probably wouldn't use it as long as they want access to app stores. If you have to get it off some random site it's probably fucked though.

Your enemy's enemy is your friend. It's "safe" as it will not try to steal your crenditials. Although it is a privacy nightmare itself but think as people in China wouldn't care much about Google's privacy policy as noone will use the information against them.