(Minghui.org) The Minghui Editorial “What All Dafa Disciples Must Know” published on June 30 urged “all Dafa practitioners and Dafa disciples to stop using WeChat, Tencent QQ, iCloud, Skype, and other similar software, regardless of whether you live in mainland China or other countries or regions of the world.” I would like to share my thoughts about the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) monitoring.
Most Dafa practitioners must be fully aware of the CCP's phone monitoring. As technology has rapidly developed in recent years, the CCP has invested tremendous resources in monitoring Falun Dafa practitioners and other groups. Surveillance cameras, which are found everywhere throughout China, have facial recognition capabilities. The CCP can quickly find the people they are looking for using these cameras. WeChat, phone calls and banking apps like Alipay and others use people's real names and invade privacy. If the CCP wants to find out about someone, it is almost unnecessary to use the conventional method of arresting and interrogating them; information can be pulled from the databases of banks, Tencent servers, and civil affairs offices.
In addition, the CCP has started using “social credit” powered by Big Data. The CCP racks its brain to come up with more ways to monitor the people. It collects information about everyone's background, hobbies, and lifestyle. All of this collected data can reveal detailed information about individuals.
Many fellow practitioners don't pay enough attention to phone security, much less to the safety risks of applications such as WeChat. For example, WeChat scans users' address books and uploads them to Tencent servers. If the CCP puts together the address books of the known Dafa practitioners, and analyzes the communications between them, they can easily find a communication network of Dafa practitioners. It clearly shows which person contacts which person. This couldn't have been accomplished before through phone tapping alone. If the CCP further focused on a certain individual, and dug out his Alipay, online shopping records and bank records, the CCP could easily find out what he is doing.
Fellow practitioners, don't let down your guard. In addition to not installing WeChat, QQ, iCloud and Skype, we have to do the following:
1. Stay away from online activities using your real name, like shopping, that could reveal you are a Falun Dafa practitioner.
2. When you have to shop for truth clarification projects, don't use banking apps on cell phones, like Alipay, which will leave records of your purchase activities. Pay with cash, especially for any big amounts that could attract attention.
3. Don't store any information revealing your identity on your cell phone, such as digital copies of your ID, driver's license, and other personal information. Try not to save fellow practitioners' phone numbers in your contacts.
4. Block apps from accessing your address book. WeChat and QQ can't be the only methods the CCP uses to collect information. If smartphones aren't a must for your work, try to use non-smartphones.
5. Try to use traditional communications, such as talking face-to-face, or sending emails through the Minghui mailboxes.
6. Don't take your cell phone with you when you go study the Fa, talk to a fellow practitioner, or clarify the truth to people. Be aware that your cell phone could be tapped even when you are talking at home.
Some fellow practitioners think the CCP could not afford the manpower to tap so many people's phones. These fellow practitioners may not realize the capability of modern technology. Conversations can be automatically transcribed, and the text can then be automatically analyzed. It doesn't require a lot of manpower to monitor a large number of people.
As more evil factors in other dimensions are eliminated, the CCP has to rely on tangible means like technology as a supplement. Let's remember not to leave any omissions in the human dimension as we send forth righteous thoughts to eliminate the evil.
Category: Improving Oneself
