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xiaomi and the privacy and security debate, a brand to trust? (linux.community)

submitted 11 hours ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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cross-posted from: https://linux.community/post/2201560

I've received a xiaomi phone as a present, a 2020 redmi 10c M2006C3MG, but I've read in several sources that this is a brand that systematically eavesdrops everything the user does. There's also the fear they pass this information to the CCP, which, if you are a Taiwanese, Tibetan, Uighur or Hongkong democracy activist or a foreigner promoting multiparty democracy in China might be used to spy on you and incarcerate you.

Other brands, western if you want to call them that, might do the same, I don't know. That's why I ask these questions:

Are all phone brands the same, meaning they all eavesdrop on me and no matter what brand I use some personal information will end up in their servers?

If all brands are equally bad, what can a quite ignorant end user like me do to minimize the information transmitted to the manufacturer? I cannot even root this device and last time I tried getting rid of another phone's bloatware I bricked the device.

If some brands are better privacy wise, which ones?

Am I protecting my privacy if I don't use any default application and disregard any ad to use products from google and use exclusively f-droid?

I don't mind voiding the warranty and I wouldn't mind installing a FOSS OS on this redmi model, as I won't bank or pay taxes using this device, but I don't find anything that works. Suggestions welcomed.

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 11 hours ago

You can do 2 things - install a custom rom or de-enshittyify

From what i got from checking - there is not any rom already present, you can try to make one yourself, but that is a hard process

to de-enshittyify - you can start with UAD https://github.com/Universal-Debloater-Alliance/universal-android-debloater-next-generation.

first boot into phone (and dont connect to internet) and enable dev mode
then connect to desktop and open UAD, and it will give a long list apps which you can consider from removal (with deifferent degrees of recommendations)
you may also disable remove google play services at your risk (google apps, and banking stuff would not work, but better battery life and privacy)
after doing this, also remove any xaomi skin apps (can be done with UAD, in case it does not find anything, check the unknown section too) (phone, sms, message, ....) these are usually forked from aosp, but with added "features"
replace these apps with fdroid equivalent (a good family of apps is fossify https://www.fossify.org/, and also use newpipe)

I am a bit experienced, so I can do it all in 1.5 hours, if you have not done this before, maybe 2-3 hours, and you will have a clean phone, largely devoid of closed source apps