Tech

WeChat webapp, China's Messaging poses Global Security Risks

The revolutionary web messaging applicaton (webapp) from China is currently enjoying some level of global success after it has reportedly attracted 300 million registered users in January 2013. It competes the world's leading webapp messaging services like LINE from Japan, VIBER from Viber Media, Inc.-a Cyprus-based company, and Kakaotalk from South Korea among others.

What is WeChat?

According to it's official website, WeChat is a powerful mobile communication application which supports voice, video, photo and text messaging services. WeChat also supports group chats and allows a user to find new friends nearby to talk to. WeChat works on iOS, Android, Windows Phone, Symbian and BlackBerry devices.

A lot of Filipinos already embraced this newest messaging platform and sooner it will become the most dominant webapp in the Philippines due to the current global trend of WeChat. Filipinos love to follow trends!

Is WeChat secretly making a stunt for a large global surveillance?

Users can be blind any time or most of the time. "Anytime" because through a quick update of WeChat, it can include underlying codes which can generate a copy of your contact list and send it back to their servers. And when we say "blind most of the time", we mean that an average user won't really bother the possibility of harmful embedded codes in WeChat-they are just merely an end-user who wants to make use of the services it offers. Now, if anyone of you would asks on how big is the security risk when using this webapp from China? This is our honest answer--WeChat can be the ultimate tool of China for a large scale and massive information gathering.

Please don't get us wrong. China is a communist country and considering their espionage efforts against leading democratic countries like US and South Korea, the risks could be a nightmare that you wouldn't like to imagine.

Let's get into the details of some considerable security-risk features of WeChat.

1. WeChat's "Look Around" feature enables you to find friends nearby because it tracks them through GPS services. It means, if President Ninoy Aquino's cellular phone has this feature enabled then he will be in a dangerous situation. China can exactly control their long range missile and direct it to our president.

2. WeChat "Facebook Connect" requires you to enter your password and you should allow access to your profile. That means, WeChat can geographically collate these information for future use. Possibly, they will use it to track the sons and daughters of the Philippine Navy or any relatives of the Armed Forces of the Philippines personnel.

3. The "Moments" feature lets you interact with your friends by giving and receiving comments, and "Liking" their photos. Hence, China can visually view all the pictures you "liked" from your friend's list. According to WeChat's website, you can restrict the visibility of your photos and set it to 'Private'. But do you think that Chinese developers could no longer see it when you activate that option? Again, we are talking about China. Reports show that China has several types of spying activities which may now include this web tool.

4. And that "Chat History Backup" is another advantage feature for China. They can easily review your chat logs and put censorship. Techinasia reportedly claimed that Wechat is apparently censoring words that are deemed “sensitive”.

Dear readers, we are not making a "Hate Campaign" against China but we are just reminding you of those security related features that might cause trouble in the future. So, again... Please don't get us wrong.

WeChat is locally endorsed by celebrities, Drew Arellano and Iya Villania.