My point of no return has come.

Pragmatist

Major Contributor
Joined
Mar 30, 2025
Messages
752
A few know that I've finally buried my WiiM Pro a while ago beside it's siblings Mini and PP.
Initially I didn't want to open this barrel again, but things became even worse over the last hours while driving back home. (It seems that removing the WiiM and the software wasn't so successful at all. There are traces I will not accept.)
Because I am still helping the family company it is mandatory that all devices in our networks have to stand regular security checks. Done by externals. The WiiM didn't pass. "Too many uncontrollable, unavoidable and ridiculous frequent internet activities!" Closing the doors makes it obviously senseless for a streamer. I work from home and listen to music at home, but I surely will not run another router or routines only for one toy. My other streamers, Cambridge and Linn, passed all checks without any problems. And at least Linn is working with AWS too.
The WiiMs got my exception granted as one and only Chinese branded devices. Has it's history, I was a very early adaptor years ago by coincidence. But now I can not and definitively want no to find justification anymore.
So, my necessary action was taken a while ago already.
And now my very personal opinion while waiting (no, not really) for the dreamers with the usual echo "a tech and hobby forum has to stay policy free". NOTHING is policy free nowadays.
Let us at least try to stay realistic! This forum and the gear it's about comes from a Chinese company. Does China stand for privacy and internet security? (Not to forget human rights? I remember called racist here for "attacking" China, that makes it now much more easy to divorce 😉. What makes you believe they give a single Cent for anyone's privacy? Been in Beijing during the last years? 🤷🏻‍♂️ We are talking about an autocratic system, not the people. As a German we have more than enough painful history with at least two of that.
This are the reasons I gave away my WiiMs. It will not drive WiiM or any other company in bankruptcy, but it feels better.
It's this f...g hypocrisy, I felt myself in too! Living in a more liberal part of the world, criticizing other systems but sending the money over just to make them even stronger. Even a company like AE is supported by some. Everything you can buy from China you can buy elsewhere. But yes, it has its price. Of course it is nearly impossible to avoid manufactured in C. or parts from C. in audio, but have a look where the main part of the added value ends. I prefer London and Glasgow f.e.
So, everyone should make an own decision.
For me it is time (again. And Pete, this time I promise: No Sinatra! 😉.) It was an honor to read you and even meet a handful. There are exceptions, of course.
Feel free to delete this post. My account will be gone in 7 days anyway, that is what WiiM needs. Be sure, you'll read about it soon somewhere. Now it got personal.
 
According to the description (which could be wrong, of course) the "preferred DNS servers" are the ones run by Google.

Let's see if your analysis reveals anything different.
It's definitely calling Google (clients4.google.com) but totally expected behaviour given it has Google built in... No other queries as yet either allowed and disallowed...
 
According to the description (which could be wrong, of course) the "preferred DNS servers" are the ones run by Google.

Let's see if your analysis reveals anything different.
Correct. 8.8.8.8 is a Google primary dns. I for instance use two Cloudflare dns servers but that is set in my router and is distributed to the clients (wiim, phone, computer etc) via dhcp.
 
What others have shown is the fairly large amount of upload traffic that these devices generate. The company states that that is required by streaming agreements, but it should illustrate what that data is (type, periodicity, etc.). Several logs examined by others have seen large amounts of uploaded data.
 
A few know that I've finally buried my WiiM Pro a while ago beside it's siblings Mini and PP.
Initially I didn't want to open this barrel again, but things became even worse over the last hours while driving back home. (It seems that removing the WiiM and the software wasn't so successful at all. There are traces I will not accept.)
Because I am still helping the family company it is mandatory that all devices in our networks have to stand regular security checks. Done by externals. The WiiM didn't pass. "Too many uncontrollable, unavoidable and ridiculous frequent internet activities!" Closing the doors makes it obviously senseless for a streamer. I work from home and listen to music at home, but I surely will not run another router or routines only for one toy. My other streamers, Cambridge and Linn, passed all checks without any problems. And at least Linn is working with AWS too.
The WiiMs got my exception granted as one and only Chinese branded devices. Has it's history, I was a very early adaptor years ago by coincidence. But now I can not and definitively want no to find justification anymore.
So, my necessary action was taken a while ago already.
And now my very personal opinion while waiting (no, not really) for the dreamers with the usual echo "a tech and hobby forum has to stay policy free". NOTHING is policy free nowadays.
Let us at least try to stay realistic! This forum and the gear it's about comes from a Chinese company. Does China stand for privacy and internet security? (Not to forget human rights? I remember called racist here for "attacking" China, that makes it now much more easy to divorce 😉. What makes you believe they give a single Cent for anyone's privacy? Been in Beijing during the last years? 🤷🏻‍♂️ We are talking about an autocratic system, not the people. As a German we have more than enough painful history with at least two of that.
This are the reasons I gave away my WiiMs. It will not drive WiiM or any other company in bankruptcy, but it feels better.
It's this f...g hypocrisy, I felt myself in too! Living in a more liberal part of the world, criticizing other systems but sending the money over just to make them even stronger. Even a company like AE is supported by some. Everything you can buy from China you can buy elsewhere. But yes, it has its price. Of course it is nearly impossible to avoid manufactured in C. or parts from C. in audio, but have a look where the main part of the added value ends. I prefer London and Glasgow f.e.
So, everyone should make an own decision.
For me it is time (again. And Pete, this time I promise: No Sinatra! 😉.) It was an honor to read you and even meet a handful. There are exceptions, of course.
Feel free to delete this post. My account will be gone in 7 days anyway, that is what WiiM needs. Be sure, you'll read about it soon somewhere. Now it got personal.
The claim you are making is serious and to be fair you ought to publish the data obtained on those tests.
 
What can easily be shown is the fairly large amount of upload traffic that these devices generate. The company states that that is required by streaming agreements, but it should illustrate what that data is (type, periodicity, etc.). Several logs examined by others have seen large amounts of uploaded data.
How do you know there is upstream traffic let alone significant amounts? For the reason you state when streaming, I've left mine purposely in standby mode, hardly any traffic upstream (which is handled locally by unbound on the PI's) that I can see... Further testing and monitoring tomorrow..
 
How do you know there is upstream traffic let alone significant amounts? For the reason you state when streaming, I've left mine purposely in standby mode, hardly any traffic upstream (which is handled locally by unbound on the PI's) that I can see... Further testing and monitoring tomorrow..

That has been reported in the past by others. You may be able to check that if your router’s logs document that by connected device.
 
What a theatrical exit... I'm laughing my ass off. What will or can the evil Chinese do with our (possibly stolen) data? Or is it the thought that they're going to infiltrate something nasty into your network? What exactly have your external network technicians noticed or what kind of idiots have allowed highly sensitive data to be tapped? What are all the other “reputable” companies doing with your data, such as Qobuz (the data leak was not so long ago), amazon, PayPal, Apple, your telephone provider etc. etc...? They certainly have more options than WiiM would have.

I don't know, I find this approach very naive. And with what's going on in the world - and also in Germany - even more so.

Edit, correction: The big(ger) data leak, it was Deezer, not Qobuz.
 
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