5 ms·

If I was based in China, could I just set my region to be somewhere else in order to bypass this?

by ssalka 7y ago

gruez 7y ago
...or just disable safebrowsing?
throwGuardian 7y ago
One of Apple Fanboy's go-to comebacks when cornered by the totalitarian silo they're allowed to exist in is: just switch to Android. But seriously, Android is probably a better choice here, given the ability to sideload apps. Even if the Chinese equivalents of the play store don't allow this behavior, there's got to be an open source app you could install by sideloading that enables this for you. And for the Apple zealots out there - this is a perfect example of sideloading working in the user's favor
- aclsid 7y ago
  You definitely haven't been in China. Even when they blocked some VPNs, Apple devices are a million times better in China because it has the official app store. You cannot begin to understand what it means to be forced to use one of those non-Google Play stores. Even if you set your device to English, Firefox will be in Chinese and you get a weird Skype version as well. I mean it is a pretty interesting experience living Google-free on Android, and you could resort to APKPure to install some stuff like Whatsapp. But honestly, unless you get a Xiaomi phone or equivalent that you can switch to an international ROM, the whole experience is pretty annoying. Spam calls and text blockers on Android are the main highlight though.
  - lonelappde 7y ago
    Almost everyone in China is literate in Chinese.
  - fulafel 7y ago
    Is there free software activism in China? Sounds like they could use something like F-Droid (or work on F-Droid to support chinese users better).
    - wildduck 7y ago
      Why is this down voted? F-Droid is very viable alternative to Google Play Store.
      - JensRex 7y ago
        I lost a lot of respect for them, when they participated in Gab censorship.
        wildduck 7y ago
        @JensRex, What is Gap censorship? From what is available on the internet, Gap seems to be online publishing is decentralized and open using AGPL3. However, I don't anything about it. Maybe you can share.
        lawlessone 7y ago
        > I don't anything about it. Maybe you can share. Gab ,It's essentially only used by and caters to white supremacists now.
        wildduck 7y ago
        >Gab ,It's essentially only used by and caters to white supremacists now. Any sources you can share?
        acollins1331 7y ago
        There aren't scholarly sources on this stuff. Just stop by sometime and read the drivel.
  - raverbashing 7y ago
    There's one interesting way of having a non-Google Android experience without going to China. Get an Amazon Fire device
- the_pwner224 7y ago
  Sideloading would not fix built-in malware that cannot be removed. You would have to flash the device with a ROM like LineageOS, at which point you would have a FOSS (excluding drivers/firmware) system which you can (mostly) trust. F-Droid is a repository / app store of good free Android software apps that you can also mostly trust, which you could then use to add functionality. But just sideloading would not do much.
input_sh 7y ago
No, you'd need to purchase the device outside of China and set the locale to something else. In the safe browsing example, you'd just lose it completely because it would be replaced by Google's safe browsing list (also used by Chrome and Firefox), which you couldn't connect to from within China. So the end result is the same as turning off safe browsing.

If I was based in China, could I just set my region to be somewhere else in order to bypass this?

by ssalka 7y ago

If I was based in China, could I just set my region to be somewhere else in order to bypass this?

gruez 7y ago

...or just disable safebrowsing?

throwGuardian 7y ago

One of Apple Fanboy's go-to comebacks when cornered by the totalitarian silo they're allowed to exist in is: just switch to Android. But seriously, Android is probably a better choice here, given the ability to sideload apps. Even if the Chinese equivalents of the play store don't allow this behavior, there's got to be an open source app you could install by sideloading that enables this for you. And for the Apple zealots out there - this is a perfect example of sideloading working in the user's favor

aclsid 7y ago
You definitely haven't been in China. Even when they blocked some VPNs, Apple devices are a million times better in China because it has the official app store. You cannot begin to understand what it means to be forced to use one of those non-Google Play stores. Even if you set your device to English, Firefox will be in Chinese and you get a weird Skype version as well. I mean it is a pretty interesting experience living Google-free on Android, and you could resort to APKPure to install some stuff like Whatsapp. But honestly, unless you get a Xiaomi phone or equivalent that you can switch to an international ROM, the whole experience is pretty annoying. Spam calls and text blockers on Android are the main highlight though.
- lonelappde 7y ago
  Almost everyone in China is literate in Chinese.
- fulafel 7y ago
  Is there free software activism in China? Sounds like they could use something like F-Droid (or work on F-Droid to support chinese users better).
  - wildduck 7y ago
    Why is this down voted? F-Droid is very viable alternative to Google Play Store.
    - JensRex 7y ago
      I lost a lot of respect for them, when they participated in Gab censorship.
      - wildduck 7y ago
        @JensRex, What is Gap censorship? From what is available on the internet, Gap seems to be online publishing is decentralized and open using AGPL3. However, I don't anything about it. Maybe you can share.
        lawlessone 7y ago
        > I don't anything about it. Maybe you can share. Gab ,It's essentially only used by and caters to white supremacists now.
        wildduck 7y ago
        >Gab ,It's essentially only used by and caters to white supremacists now. Any sources you can share?
        acollins1331 7y ago
        There aren't scholarly sources on this stuff. Just stop by sometime and read the drivel.
- raverbashing 7y ago
  There's one interesting way of having a non-Google Android experience without going to China. Get an Amazon Fire device
the_pwner224 7y ago
Sideloading would not fix built-in malware that cannot be removed. You would have to flash the device with a ROM like LineageOS, at which point you would have a FOSS (excluding drivers/firmware) system which you can (mostly) trust. F-Droid is a repository / app store of good free Android software apps that you can also mostly trust, which you could then use to add functionality. But just sideloading would not do much.

input_sh 7y ago

No, you'd need to purchase the device outside of China and set the locale to something else. In the safe browsing example, you'd just lose it completely because it would be replaced by Google's safe browsing list (also used by Chrome and Firefox), which you couldn't connect to from within China. So the end result is the same as turning off safe browsing.