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.
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.
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:
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:
Good luck!