I’ve received a xiaomi phone as a present, a 2022 redmi 10c 220333QNY, 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:
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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?
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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.
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If some brands are better privacy wise, which ones?
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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.
I’m saving your thread because I’ve been curious about this as well. For reference, are you using this phone in the US?
So here’s the thing. The phone was made by a company in another country that has to follow that countries laws. But that only extends to the stock OS.
Just unlock the bootloader, root it, and install whatever on it. IIRC Xiaomi phones are pretty open platform wise, and are compatible with a wide array of ROMs. I’ve personally been using LibreMobileOS recently and I really like it–but unfortunately that seems to be one of the few Redmi models they don’t support yet. lol
Yes but, have you ever rooted a Xiaomi device. it’s VERY hard. not impossible, but very hard. Requires iirc a 28 day waiting period, and you can only do one per year. (I imagine they enforce by phone number) Here’s a guide I found with a quick google search, it requires running their super sketchy windows only utility, etc… etc… https://www.reddit.com/r/PocoPhones/comments/1bsb2ce/how_to_root_your_phone_whatever_your_xiaomi_phone/
And yes, everything you have read is true about how bad it is. Did you know by default every app is set to debuggable? it’s something the OS does, and no, you can’t turn it off from the apps perspective. The whole system is just not secure, by design.
Yes but, have you ever rooted a Xiaomi device. it’s VERY hard.
It takes a bit of working around, but it’s generally not that difficult to unlock your bootloader without following “official” methods: https://xdaforums.com/t/a-guide-to-unlocking-the-bootloader-of-the-xiaomi-redmi-9a-9at-without-mi-unlock.4687858/
All manufacturers do it. Of course, not all of them report to China specifically.
If you want to be safe, you could use a phone like Xperia with Sailfish OS (though beware it’s not Android and it’s less user friendly), Pixel with a Graphene OS or something that supports Lineage OS.
That’s a redmi 9c if that model number is correct. No official lineage support, but there are a lot of interesting roms on xda: https://xdaforums.com/c/redmi-9c.10999/
This seems good, official, gapps is optional: https://xdaforums.com/t/rom-12-1-official-nusantara-project-4-5-unified-for-redmi-9a-9c-9-activ-garden-sinila-updated.4374805/
Afaik if you replace the rom they cant really do much. Also MIUI or whatever they call it nowadays is the worst android experience i’ve ever used.
That’s a redmi 9c if that model number is correct.
you are right, I wrote a false model number. The device is a 2022 redmi 10C 220333QNY
That’s a bit more niche device, no xda page. I couldn’t found any custom rom for that device.
Most xiaomi devices at least have the so called xiaomi.eu rom is available which is basically the same as the original rom, but every chinese only parts and gapps removed. It doesn’t have one as the developer wrote here:
Actually, no. Conditions for a device to be supported: https://xiaomi.eu/community/threads/supported-devices.65673/ Redmi 10C has a 720p resolution, while we only support 1080p and 1440p resolution devices. Please, don’t buy trash devices if you wish to use our ROMs.
So as this is a low end budget device I wouldn’t expect that it will be supported by any 3rd party. If you really want to hack on this device, you are on your own.
With this knowledge I would do the following:
- Unlock the bootloader. You can find info how you can do that here: https://mifirm.net/model/fog.ttt
- Install magisk for root: https://topjohnwu.github.io/Magisk/
- Try to remove google services and optionally replace it with microg. Nanolx has a nice writeup how to do this on unsupported devices: https://gitlab.com/Nanolx/NanoDroid/-/blob/master/doc/Installation.md#installation-on-stock-rom-with-gapps
- If you mess it up at some point you can always reflash the factory rom, you can download it from here: https://miuirom.org/phones/redmi-10c
Good luck!
