Is WeChat Snooping on Your Chats? 马化腾天天看我们微信？微信回应不留存、不分析用户聊天记录

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WeChat users continue to flame Tencent, despite the tech giant’s denial that it reads or stores conversations.

“All the messages go through a server. I don’t believe they don’t store them,” said a net user who identified as JerryCha.

The online uproar erupted after Li Shufu, the billionaire chairman of Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, was quoted by domestic media on Monday as saying that Tencent Chairman “Pony” Ma Huateng “must be watching our WeChat every day.”

Geely Vice President Yang Xueliang tried his hand at damage control, saying Li’s comments were intended to introduce the data-protection capacity of Geely’s new car model, “rather than targeting anyone.”

Meanwhile, Tencent issued a forceful denial that it reads or keeps WeChat conversations.

“WeChat does not store any user’s chat logs, which are only stored in users’ mobile phones, computers and other devices,” Tencent said in a statement on Tuesday, adding WeChat doesn’t use any content from user chat records for big-data analysis.

“The rumor that ‘we are watching your WeChat every day’ is pure misunderstanding… We have neither the authority nor reason to look at your WeChat,” Tencent said.

But that hasn’t calmed many of WeChat’s 980 million active users, who on average send 38 million personal messages through the service. Some users also expressed alarm that Tencent might be keeping other personal information. In addition to instant messaging, WeChat has spread out since starting in 2011 to allow users to buy goods, book a restaurant and, soon in Guangdong province, to be a digital alternative to national identification cards.

Privacy concerns have exploded in China as fintech and other companies have raced to collect valuable big data on their customers.

Adding to the worry is China’s Cybersecurity Law, which took effect in June and requires all internet companies to store internet logs and relevant data for at least six months to assist law enforcement.

An internet expert said that internet logs are different from chat histories as the former only track users’ usage histories – such as which applications and services they tapped – rather than contents of their messages. However, the expert said since all WeChat messages are processed through central servers, there is still possibility for WeChat to view the contents, which is how the operator can identify illegal activities on its platform.

Like many social media platforms, WeChat can filter and censor certain content distributed on its platform that violate China’s laws, such as gambling, financial fraud and pornography. Under the rules on management of internet content issued in September, internet companies will be held accountable if they don’t enforce content rules.

Tencent said it encrypts users’ messages during transmission to thwart information and privacy leaks of its users.

Tencent says in its privacy policy that it would never disclose users’ information to a third party without permission. It also says that it strictly follows national laws in assisting law enforcement and complies with international standards on information security.

Some users also say they are worried that increasingly customized ads shown on their WeChat apps mean Tencent is closely tracking their interests.

However, Tencent says in its privacy policy that data used for customized ads distributed don’t include users’ chat histories.

Liu Chunquan, a partner at Shanghai-based Duan & Duan Law Firm, said that considering the legal risks of privacy breaches, Tencent has no reason to retain users’ private conversation history. In addition, given how many users WeChat has, it would require massive storage and huge costs to keep chats, while having limited business value, Liu said.

Tencent is not the only social media platform to face a backlash over privacy concerns. Last month, France’s data-protection watchdog gave instant messenger WhatsApp and Facebook, its owner, one month to stop any data sharing.

马化腾天天看我们微信？微信回应不留存、不分析用户聊天记录

“我心里就想，马化腾肯定天天在看我们的微信，因为他都可以看。”2018年新年伊始，吉利控股集团董事长李书福在出席某活动时的一番话，引发了关于微信用户聊天隐私的热议。

1月2日上午，微信通过官方平台宣布微信不留存用户聊天记录，也不会将用户任何聊天内容用于大数据分析。微信称“天天在看你的微信属于误解”。

微信这样回应

关于用户聊天记录等隐私，微信的回应包括三点，一是微信不留存任何用户的聊天记录，聊天内容只存储在用户的手机、电脑等终端设备上；二是微信不会将用户的任何聊天内容用于大数据分析；三是因微信不存储、不分析用户聊天内容的技术模式，传言中所说‘我们天天在看你的微信’纯属误解。

作为拥有合并月活跃账户达9.8亿的微信及WeChat，用户隐私的相关问题格外敏感。

值得注意的是，如果微信不分析用户聊天记录，如何阻止有害信息的传播呢？2017年12月18日，微信安全中心发布《关于规范微信个人帐号发布投资建议及“荐股”相关服务信息的公告》，称通过用户举报数据，核实确认共计对120多个微信群进行限制群功能处理，并对1100多个微信账号进行限制功能使用或限制登录等阶梯式处罚。

对此，微信团队回应第一财经称，“微信一直坚持保护用户的通信隐私，绝不会去触碰、去算计用户的通信秘密。这是我们的产品理念，也是我们的底线。微信聊天记录，仅用于微信手机端的本地搜索和展示，不做任何其他用途。从微信服务器后台无法提取任何人的聊天记录。”

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