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.
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/
Thanks for that!!! I’ll give this a shot.
I wrote the wrong model number, right model number is 2022 redmi 10C 220333QNY, I didn’t find a guide to bootload this model on xdaforums.
There’s also a caveat: I’d be bootloading with debian 12.9.
Can I bootload without installing any redmi crap on my computer or creating an account with them?
Nope, no way. I’ve done it once as an experiment and had to jump through all the hoops. And that was when the waiting time was a week instead of a month to unlock your device. You also need a windows PC (with an Intel processor! The unlock tool didn’t work on my AMD system) plus a Xiaomi account.