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8 in 10 Europeans don’t trust US, Chinese firms with data (www.politico.eu)
submitted 5 months ago by to c/technology@lemmy.world
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[–] 1 point 5 months ago (9 children)

Okay but what's the risk if the cccp will find out I can't write a fucking yaml for the life of me?

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  • [–] 2 points 5 months ago* (6 children)

    Let me put things this way: after my last AliExpress purchase I was targetted for the first time in my life by a PayPal fishing phone call from India (starting with a pre-recorded message in my native language but then switching to some guy speaking English with an Indian accent).

    Somebody I know has been targetted twice by "you package is awaiting at customs" phishing messages after making purchases at AliExpress.

    Maybe coincidence, maybe AliExpress is having their trade payment processing ops outsourced to somebody that sells it to people that will use it to fraudulently pass themselves as a natural entity involved in the purchase process (like PayPal or the destination country's Customs) or maybe AliExpress themselves sell that data. Judging by the amount of outright fraudulent sales claims there (the capacity of any power storage devices is at times hilarious, as is the output wattage of solar panels and storage capacity of external SSDs), my bet is the latter, though if it's not that totally not giving a shit about the risk of the second possibility is almost a certainty.

    That kind of "why should I care" bullshit you're peddling is exactly the same kind of bullshit that was peddled a decade and a half ago about having one's e-mail with Google, and look at were we are now.

    Unless you're stupidly isolated from it (not even giving them your e-mail), you're going to leak stuff that can be used against you, even if only by criminals (and the authorities in China couldn't give a rat's arse about their people swindling or stealing from laowai).

    Like in the US, it's going to be "Free Enterprise" abusing data about even if the local authorities don't really care about you.

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  • [–] 3 points 5 months ago (3 children)

    The real question is why did you give your phone number to AlliExpress?

    Secondly, why answer an unknown number?

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  • [–] 3 points 5 months ago* (2 children)

    It's used by the delivery people to contact me if they can't find the delivery place or I'm not there. Also some of the local delivery companies will, for more expensive things, send the recipient an SMS with a code that you then give to the delivery person so that they know for sure they're delivering to the right person (or somebody authorized by them).

    It's actually a pretty good way to solve a lot of problems with delivery, but it does mean I need to have a mobile phone number which ends up in the hands of at least two entities.

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  • [–] 2 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 child)

    You should just contact the carrier to give them your number after the order is placed. Preferably you could just include your actual number as instructions for the delivery driver (if they have that. ) Doing that cuts out even more middle men and your number isn't officially logged.

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  • [–] 3 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

    That would require for me to know which carrier would be doing the final leg of the delivery when the package is in my country, which often I don't and over time there's even new carriers popping up.

    A much simpler solution is to have a second mobile number which I give out for these things which is actually quite easy since I can just use a Pay As You Go SIM.

    Might be worth changing the number AliExpress has on archive for me, though by now if the sold or leaked that info, it can't be undone.

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  • [–] 2 points 5 months ago* (1 child)

    In this case, you use common sense and be suspicious of anyone with a foreign accent making unsolicited phone calls…especially those with Indian accents. The ones you should look out for are the scams that involve AI spoofing a family member’s voice.

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  • [–] 1 point 5 months ago*

    The less info about you is out there, the less handles they have to pass themselves for those who can legitimatelly ask money from you or which control access to your money, be they family, friends, your bank, the government and so on.

    They can't spoof a family member's voice if they don't know who is your family or have access to samples of their voice - both things often obtainable via Facebook and would also be obtainable via a Chinese equivalent one might be tempted to use instead.

    Anyways, my point is that Chinese companies are inherently no more trustworthy than American ones, they're just not as bad yet because they don't yet have the same access to masses and masses of personal information for people all over the World - once they do, they'll be just as bad because regulations in China are also shit and they don't give a damn about foreigners.

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