Five VPN Apps In the App Store Had Links To Chinese Military (9to5mac.com) 21
A joint investigation found that at least five popular VPN apps on the App Store and Google Play have ties to Qihoo 360, a Chinese company with military links. Apple has since removed two of the apps but has not confirmed the status of the remaining three, which 9to5Mac notes have "racked up more than a million downloads." The five apps in question are Turbo VPN, VPN Proxy Master, Thunder VPN, Snap VPN, and Signal Secure VPN (not associated with the Signal messaging app). The Financial Times reports: At least five free virtual private networks (VPNs) available through the US tech groups' app stores have links to Shanghai-listed Qihoo 360, according to a new report by research group Tech Transparency Project, as well as additional findings by the Financial Times. Qihoo, formally known as 360 Security Technology, was sanctioned by the US in 2020 for alleged Chinese military links. The US Department of Defense later added Qihoo to a list of Chinese military-affiliated companies [...] In recent recruitment listings, Guangzhou Lianchuang says its apps operate in more than 220 countries and that it has 10mn daily users. It is currently hiring for a position whose responsibilities include "monitoring and analyzing platform data." The right candidate will be "well-versed in American culture," the posting says.
Why use an app? (Score:3)
Why would you use a VPN app when Android and iOS both include support for VPNs without one? Using one just adds one more thing that can be compromised.
Re:Why use an app? (Score:4, Insightful)
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I agree. I'd actually rather the Chinese military be sucking up my data than a US corporation. They'd at least see that I have no influence in government or technology and put in the "not a target" category. Would they even bother selling the data?
But I'd also like to say; "Told you so" to all those people who gave me a hard time when I said; "Don't put too much trust in VPN." They are only pretending to not know it's you doing what you do. They will let you download a movie. They will let you order drugs.
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Actually, social media users are a target (Score:2)
I'd actually rather the Chinese military be sucking up my data than a US corporation. They'd at least see that I have no influence in government or technology and put in the "not a target" category.
Quite the contrary. You are quite useful furthering their Psy Op activities on social media. As you just demonstrated. I bet the CCP will have your post upvoted. :-)
Serious, look at what skewing social media does for tiktok. Favorability boost for CCP positions with nothing more than amplifying posts that favor CCP positions. Such manipulation of public sentiment is a goal of Psy Ops.
Social media users are a target since social media has replaced traditional news outlets to a large degree.
"A separa
Re:Why use an app? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Why use an app? (Score:4, Informative)
Same for iOS; you need to install the Wireguard app for wireguard to be available as a VPN type.
Also, some VPN services need their app to be able to dynamically pick servers; without that you end up connecting to an overused host.
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Why would you use a VPN app
Because I'm technologically illiterate and social media told me to do it.
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How do you connect to an OpenVPN server on iOS with out the OpenVPN app?
Without the app you can only add IKEv2, IPsec or L2TP protocol VPN's, none of which are compatible with OpenVPN
this isn't the Firehose! give at a rest. (Score:2)
sorry for repeating from yesterday, but 15 stories between like 7AM and 5PM is about 3x or 4x too many. (maybe. who knows how /. is still alive makes money anyway. from that pov maybe it's just right.)
At this rate i might as well be scrolling TikTok / YT Shorts. dang.
Re: (Score:2)
I agree. I'd rather have fewer stories, giving us ability to sustain elaborate conversations over a longer time. In particular as we are fewer right now and we need more time to make a meaningful conversation.
I only comment outside of business hours. Sometimes I read an interesting post morning before work and I'd like to comment something but by the time I'm back from work the whole story is buried below many and it's not worth commenting anymore.
If it's free (Score:3)
YOU are the product.
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YOU are the product.
Jebuzz H Kryste - especially with something like a VPN.
What the hell is the matter with people? And 75 dolla a month for the Financial Times? I'll pay for software, and obviously for VPN, but almost a thousand per year is a tad steep.
Always been suspicious about VPNs that works (Score:5, Interesting)
Last time I was in China it struck me that my secure VPN solutions, using my own tunnels and pre-installed keys etc, they never worked well. They are throttled to death after a very quick time, since the firewall does not recognize the traffic.
Meanwhile, the VPN solutions my Chinese colleagues use seem to work very well, and it's an open secret. Everyone uses them.
This makes me pretty certain that every VPN solution that works within China, they work simply because there is a known backdoor.
The US apps are linked to megacorp (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Well that makes you an idiot for using them.
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Use them or don't have access.
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Yep I picked one up probably about a decade ago from ProXPN, I use it strictly for evading streaming geoblocks.
Correction (Score:2)
The headline should be: 'So far links to the Chinese military have been established for five apps'.