Matti Robinson
25 Sep 2017 13:20
It has been revealed that the messaging platform WeChat, owned by the Chinese technology giant Tencent, shares all its data with the government, Moneycontrol.com reports.
Chinese government is known for limiting access to online content and surveilling its citizens closely so it shouldn't come as a surprise but nonetheless seems egregious even from them.
Even though the messaging service is not among the most used in the U.S., or Europe for that matter, it has over 650 million users. It's the third largest messaging platform after WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger. As one might imagine most of its users are in China or surrounding countries but plenty of westeners use the service as well.
The sharing of data with the Chinese government was revealed from the company's new privacy policy. Updating the software requires accepting the new policy so this means that every single message can be accessed by the government from now on.
The Chinese government has made it clear that it will hold individuals responsible for example group chats that spread information that is deemed questionable.
Unlike WeChat, the most popular messaging platform WhatsApp offers end-to-end encryption that makes it (nearly) impossible for anyone except the sender and recipient to read the message.