I live in Canada. My girlfriend is Chinese (also living in Canada), and while we are able to communicate via SMS, her mobile carrier isn’t the best, and so there have often been issues for us with regular texting. She expressed a strong preference to use WeChat, at least as a backup option for when texting fails us. While I have some pretty significant reservations, it’s not the hill I want to die on. So my question is: what can be done to use WeChat without compromising my whole phone? I’m okay with it if our conversations aren’t private, but I’d like to know that I’m not giving unfettered access to all of my phone’s systems and data to the CCP. What can be done to limit the reach of this ubiquitous app on my device?

    • bionicjoey@lemmy.caOP
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      7 months ago

      Yup, that’s what I’ve ended up doing. It wasn’t on my radar before making this post, so I’m thankful for everyone who suggested it.

  • archchan@lemmy.ml
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    7 months ago

    Maybe meet in the middle? If she’s willing to put up with SMS for you, I think she’ll be fine with Signal.

  • Andromxda 🇺🇦🇵🇸🇹🇼@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    7 months ago

    Basically 2 options: A work profile or a separate Android user profile. I’d definitely recommend the latter, as it has much stronger isolation. Some vendors like Samsung disable user profile support though. A work profile is still better than nothing.

    • bionicjoey@lemmy.caOP
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      7 months ago

      Signal can even be used in China

      I had no idea! I’ll definitely talk to her about this.

      • Andromxda 🇺🇦🇵🇸🇹🇼@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        7 months ago

        This feature only exists, because the people behind Signal actually care about freedom and want to help their users. Unlike WeChat, Signal is not built by any government to spy on people, and unlike commercial messengers like WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger, it’s not built by a corporation that wants to extract money from their users by selling their data. It’s a non-profit organization, created by people who are dedicated to make the world more private and secure. Just keep that in mind when choosing a messaging app.

        • bionicjoey@lemmy.caOP
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          7 months ago

          I’m well aware of what Signal is. I just didn’t realize it could go through the Great Firewall.

  • Guadin@k.fe.derate.me
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    7 months ago

    You can put it in a work profile and trust that Android is protective enough to keep your data safe and access limited. Otherwise buy a second phone just to put WeChat on it. Don’t know how WeChat works, but if it’s like Whatsapp then you don’t need to bother with a secondary number.

    • rmuk@feddit.uk
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      7 months ago

      To add to this: you can install an open-source app called Shelter which will let you quickly set up a Work Profile for apps you want to keep isolated.