[taldo]

From TFA

> While alphabetic keyboards typically provide autocomplete features for more expedient typing, predictive features in Chinese input methods are more crucial when using input methods such as pinyin where hundreds of characters might match an inputted pinyin syllable. For longer strings of syllables, an IME will commonly reach out over the network to a cloud-based service for suggestions if suitable suggestions are not available in the input method’s local database.

Not saying whether they should, but it's pretty easy to understand why they do it.

[Nextgrid]

It's impressive that users are ok with this. This is even beyond the (now generally-accepted) analytics and ad targeting, it's literally "we'll send all your keystrokes to a remote server", a literal keylogger.

[lucubratory]

The privacy environment in the PRC is pretty different to here (I'm in Australia, but speaking for the West in general). In the PRC there is an expectation by everyone (government and citizen) that the government will have access to your data if it wants it and trying to keep that data away from the government is itself criminal. Foreigners are held to a different standard, but the takeaway is that for the vast majority of PRC internet users security from government invasion of privacy is "not a concern"; it's essentially known that it will always be the case, so why be worried about it?

On the consumer privacy side, talking about consumer data safety from companies using it for commercial exploitation, that's where there is allowable space to be protective, and the laws reflect that in the PRC. If Tencent was found to be doing something that was seriously exploitative of user privacy in a way that made enough Chinese very angry, it would be almost certain that Tencent would be breaking some law to do so, and depending on the circumstances you could see anything from mandatory "make it right" directives from the government to the execution of Pony Ma as a result. PRC citizenry expect that if they are seriously harmed, en masse, by a company, the government will make it right.

This is a very different environment and culture from what we have in the West. In general, if I was the victim of significant harm (alongside many other people) by a large corporation, I would not expect justice. The CEO or those who made the decisions that harmed me wouldn't be executed, the company wouldn't be forced to push an update making my device safe to use again or pay a full refund to everyone, etc. As a result, if I care about this issue I'm not really thinking about the consequences for big companies of harming me, I'm just thinking about how to protect myself. What software can I individually use to protect my privacy, what companies should I individually avoid because I know I don't like what they're doing, etc. These are philosophically quite different approaches to privacy concerns - we have a lot more individual freedom in the West if we choose to use it, when it comes to individual net privacy, but the general attitude of PRC is that they don't have to worry about the privacy thing because the government will handle it one way or another.