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Privacy advise internship China (lemmy.dbzer0.com)
submitted 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) by intern_chinaa@lemmy.dbzer0.com to c/privacy@lemmy.ml
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I’m an European student heading to Shanghai for an internship where debit and credit cards are rarely accepted. Locals recommend using Alipay for payments, but I have heard mixed results about compatibility with European credit cards. Some claim credit cards don’t work at all with Alipay, while others say they have zero issues. It was suggested to get a Wise or Revolut card to use with Alipay. What are your thoughts on which option is more privacy friendly or if there are better alternatives.

I have also been advised to get a VPN for China. While I self-host a VPN, I planned to add Mullvad because of its obfuscation techniques. Except it was recommended to get LetsVPN or Astrill, they said because they work the best in China and that is what everyone uses. What are your thoughts on which VPN I should get? Also any other suggestion or advise for my internship in Shanghai are appreciated.

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[-] doodoo_wizard@lemmy.ml 12 points 4 days ago

Everything works fine. Stop worrying.

If you want to be 100% sure (and this is smart in general in all of life!), open a bank account and get a credit card tied to it for payments. Go to taobao or AliExpress or something where Alipay or WeChat are used and try them out with your new financial details.

It doesn’t matter what credit card you get because credit cards are an incredibly not private method of paying for stuff and merchants, processors and everyone else are strongly incentivized to collect and sell user transaction data.

This is going to sound counterintuitive, but don’t get a vpn to bypass the firewall if you don’t have a non-espionage reason to do so. The reason I say that is you’re pitting yourself against a nations cybersecurity people and there’s a good chance they’re smarter than you. It would be better to be able to say “I saw on reddit that I could use this vpn to access this forum for a game I play” and then show the cops all your cringey posts and your hundreds of hours of playtime than to say “I wasn’t doing anything!” or “I just value my privacy!”.

[-] intern_chinaa@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 4 days ago

Thanks for the advice, good to hear the flip side of the coin.

[-] utopiah@lemmy.ml 1 points 3 days ago

there’s a good chance they’re smarter than you.

Not really BUT they are definitely more specialized and have a lot more dedicated resources, including other dedicated people, who are paid to get information on you and your behavior. One does not have to be "smart" to excel in security compared to a normal user who cares very little.

That being said, no matter how smart and how much resource they have, they also can't break encryption. They can though ask a cop to come to your place and incarcerate your regardless. So... do with that what you will.

[-] Jabril@hexbear.net 8 points 4 days ago

USian here, can't speak to euro credit cards but US credit cards work fine. You 100% need alipay and/or WeChat, I would have both. You just put your credit card info on there and it works fine. Alipay also has some kind of travel card option I think but never needed it. I would get an Esim and then you don't need a VPN, I used trip.com esim. I have mullvad VPN and it works fine in China.

Get a spot in Shanghai near Metro to make travel easier. Shanghai gets relatively cold in winter and very hot in summer.

The Chinese gov doesn't care about you unless you are literally a spy or doing illegal things so I wasn't really worried about privacy as I am when I am in the US.

[-] intern_chinaa@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 4 days ago

Thank you for your advise. I have an old phone were I put all the Chinese apps on like Alipay and WeChat. But I will still bring my private phone but exclusively use it with a VPN.

[-] Jabril@hexbear.net 2 points 4 days ago

Have fun, China is pretty great aside from all the cigarette smokers, but you might be used to that as a European

[-] utopiah@lemmy.ml 3 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

you might be used to that as a European

FWIW really depends where in Europe, in France and Belgium at least the law radically changed where

  • you can't smoke in a restaurant, bar, club (that's been for a while now)
  • you can't smoke in FRONT of a place (like you need to be far from the exit)
  • you can't smoke even outdoor in a public place (e.g. train station by the tracks, beach in France)
  • advertisement is forbidden
  • cigarette packs have absolutely disgusting warnings (e.g. lung cancer, throat cancer) with graphic photos

... so yes there are still some people who smoke but it's a LOT less public, in Western Europe, than just a couple of years ago.

To be clear some people still ignore those laws but if you compare to just a decade ago it's radically less popular.

[-] Jabril@hexbear.net 2 points 3 days ago

Good to know. When I think of French people, smoking is one of the first elements that comes to mind.

[-] utopiah@lemmy.ml 1 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

Behaviors changed a lot but even then according to

that's an incorrect stereotype. According to this dataset for example since 1990 to 2021 France always had lower share of deaths attributed to smoking than e.g. the US.

Source https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-deaths-smoking from broader https://ourworldindata.org/smoking

[-] intern_chinaa@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 4 days ago

Thanks, will do. I unfortunately despise smokers and where I live I luckily rarely see them anymore. So I am curious how it will be over there.

[-] Jabril@hexbear.net 4 points 3 days ago

Yeah same, it's easily the worst issue I have when in China. Technically people aren't supposed to smoke indoors but many people don't enforce the rules which is annoying. I've not noticed a smell in any rooms I stayed in but in the lobbies, halls, and especially bathrooms, you can often smell it. And outdoors every 5th person seems to be smoking

The only other issue I really have had is on long train rides people will be watching videos loudly on their phones, which is also against the rules. Train staff will sometimes tell them to turn it down but not as frequently as it should be.

this post was submitted on 11 Jan 2026
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