Comment by postalcoder
1 day ago
kimi has been particularly shameless in copying codex 1:1, wow.
Like, I get it, before condex there was conductor and a ton of other guis but this looks like they just copied the code.
Also, their privacy disclosure is incredibly misleading:
> How does Kimi Work protect my privacy when accessing local files? You have absolute control over your files. The built-in Ask before acting safeguard means Kimi will prompt you for explicit authorization before it modifies, overwrites, or runs code within your local directories. Nothing happens without your consent.
They fail to mention that is has unfettered read access to your files. ie, without your consent.
>They fail to mention that is has unfettered read access to your files.
Isn't that totally expected of a coding agent? Otherwise it's like complaining dropbox "has unfettered access to your files".
Yes, but the answer is an indirection.
“How does Kimi Work protect my privacy when accessing local files?”
It doesn’t protect your privacy. It’s like asking, “how do I know you’re not spying on me?” And getting the reply “we cannot physically enter your house.”
>It doesn’t protect your privacy. It’s like asking, “how do I know you’re not spying on me?” And getting the reply “we cannot physically enter your house.”
In light of the recent grok build snafu, "Nothing happens without your consent" seems like an upgrade. Moreover what are they supposed to do here? By that logic should any sort of non e2e email/storage provider not be able to put "How does [product] protect my privacy" in their faq?
Looking through their privacy policy, it looks like the bigger issue is that they are (or refuse to refute) training on your data/prompts. That's probably what people should be complaining about rather than complaining about how it "has unfettered access to your files", when that describes all coding harnesses.
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"How does Kimi Work protect my privacy" can be interpreted in two ways. The first is "How does Kimi Work protect my privacy from Moonshot?" They did not answer this question. The second is "How does Kimi Work protect my privacy from other third parties?" They are answering this question by saying, we won't upload your files to some third party server without your consent.
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This is why I run CC under podman.
It is, but I really think this project would be better as open source. They are already all-in on open for the most valuable part (the frontier model)! They might as well make the harness fully transparent so that questions about what's being accessed and transmitted can be avoided.
I personally wouldn't use any agentic harness from any company, American, Chinese, or otherwise, that is closed source. The Grok fiasco shows why.
The repo you’re working on, sure. But all files?
> The repo you’re working on, sure. But all files?
Yes, any tool, including any coding agent, has access to all files $USER has access to.
Sandbox it explicitly to give access to only the current directory - https://github.com/ashishb/amazing-sandbox
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Not sure what that's about, I was just copying the wording from OP. Their harness probably has the same restrictions as most other coding harnesses. That is, the read tool gives all project files by default without prompting, and everything else requires manual approval (or opting into auto-run all). If you decide to run it from your home directory however, then your "project" is all your files.
Everyone’s saying that it looks like Codex but TBH it just looks like all the AI chat websites on the side and some frequent actions on the top.
You have almost no control with Codex or Claude in that you have to trust them not to break their own rules.
You have almost no control with Kimi either, they can also say one thing and do another. You will not be able to sue a Chinese company if it breaks the law.
I can think of no faster way to hand over your trade secrets or intellectual property than to run something like this.
I think success and dominance for agent providers will eventually come to which ever is able to best guarantee that they don't damage their customers businesses not the cheapest to run.
Do we still fall for the China = must be spying, US = wouldn't spy unless it's disclosed?
It's fair to say whatever software you run from any country of origin is hoovering up as much data about you that it can get away with.
If you haven't compiled open source, audited code and are running on that, all bets are already off.
Sharing among AI friends what’s the problem, scraping the Internet or hiring new employees between companies who like to share? It’s a tradition among the AI model makers…
>kimi has been particularly shameless in copying codex 1:1, wow.
Isn´t codex (edited) Apache 2.0 (thanks @Shank)
https://github.com/openai/codex ?
No, it's Apache 2. https://github.com/openai/codex/blob/main/LICENSE
The CLI is open but the GUI is proprietary.
I guess the issue is they didn't give attribution?
They all are pretty similar. And if it was copying anything, I would say more inspiration from claude desktop then codex. The Zcode is more like codex.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1JFfgfMO0nO7HR0WHwEqEEjXIIQj...
> kimi has been particularly shameless in copying codex 1:1, wow.
OpenAI's pigeons come home to roost
> kimi has been particularly shameless in copying codex 1:1, wow.
so ????
LLMs by definition are copyright infringers. so this is nothing compared to that.
I am more concerned about what happens to the file if I give permission.
Opensource and local are seeming like the only way.
if your model ever touches bash, it has unfettered acess to all your files.
Not if the harness applies an OS-level sandbox to the process, as Codex does.
https://learn.chatgpt.com/docs/sandboxing?surface=cli
Unfortunately it was possible in codex too, until recently.
https://github.com/openai/codex/issues/5237
on linux, thats this: https://ubuntu.com/security/notices/USN-8288-1
No, you need to apply the sandbox to the codex process itself. Codex does not do this.
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How dare they copy the largest plagiarism machine ever created.
The Dutch have a saying: it's better to have stolen something well than to have invented something bad.
Words to live by.
[flagged]
As if American companies don’t copy each other or copy what Chinese firms does.
there is a pretty stark difference between independent US companies copying each other and a state backed chinese company taking data and IP from american citizens.
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