How to Protect Your Data on a Xiaomi Phone | 11 Ways to Improve Xiaomi Privacy

Do you own a Xiaomi phone? Are you worried about the security of the data on it? Learn how to protect your data on a Xiaomi phone in this guide.

Xiaomi is one of the biggest smartphone manufacturers in the world. Xiaomi smartphones are extremely popular in Asian countries like China, India, and more. Offering feature-rich smartphones at affordable prices is not profitable, so Xiaomi is known to advertise and even sell user data for additional revenue. 

However, backlash from users meant, Xiaomi had to add features that allowed users to opt-out of advertising. But it is not as straightforward as switching on a button to get better privacy and data protection.

To protect your data on a Xiaomi smartphone, you have to take multiple measures like

• Set Up Your Device Carefully
• Stay away from Mi Apps
• Use a Privacy-Friendly Keyboard App
• Do Not Agree to Privacy Policies
• Manage App Permissions
• Revoke Authorization
• Disable Glance (Lockscreen)
• Disable User Experience Program and Diagnostic Data Collection
• Don’t use Mi Cloud
• Disable Ads to Protect Data on your Xiaomi Smartphone
• Update your Xiaomi Phone Regularly

If you don’t know how to do any of the above security measures, continue reading our guide on how to protect your data on a Xiaomi Phone for a detailed explanation. 

Related: How to Use Xiaomi Cloud

How to Protect Your Data on a Xiaomi Phone?

Ways to Improve Xiaomi Privacy

Check out all the ways to improve privacy and protect your data on a Xiaomi phone.

Set Up Your Device Carefully

Make sure you set up your Xiaomi device for maximum security and privacy. When you buy a new Xiaomi phone or if you factory reset it, you can set it up in a way that focuses on privacy more. 

When you set up your Xioami phone, read and check what you are agreeing to. You can enable or disable certain features so that your data is protected and not sent to Xiaomi. 

There are some options that you need to pay attention to, 

• User experience program
• Usage and diagnostic data
• Glance (Lockscreen)
• Advertisement
• Privacy Policy

You can accept or reject these options depending on your need when setting up. However, if you have already set up your Xiaomi device, you can still disable these options in the Settings app.

Stay away from Mi Apps

Xiaomi’s built-in apps are notoriously known for tracking your personal data. 

While Xiaomi uses Google’s phone and messaging app, it defaults to Mi apps like Mi Pay, Mi Remote, GetApps, and more which are not ideal.

Since Mi apps are pre-installed, many users use them. However, Mi apps are much worse than Google apps when it comes to handling your data. 

So, it is recommended to avoid using Mi apps as much as you can. Stick to Google apps or look for third-party apps that focus on Privacy. 

Use a Privacy-Friendly Keyboard App

Keyboards are an important part of the smartphone experience. You use them for texting, browsing, and more. Keyboards are also important for inputting info like usernames, passwords, and banking info. So it is vital that you use a keyboard that is more privacy-focused. 

As mentioned above, don’t use the default Xiaomi keyboard, instead use Gboard, SwiftKey, etc, if you want a popular keyboard with features.

If you want the utmost privacy, then try AnySoftKeyboard. AnySoftKeyboard is an open-source, keyboard app that is privacy focused.  

Do Not Agree to Privacy Policies

Your Xiaomi phone and Mi apps will ask you to accept Privacy Policies. Do not accept these if you want to protect your data. 

Disagree when an app asks you to accept Privacy Policies during launch. You can go through the privacy policy and accept it if you think it’s safe. From my experience, only a few apps need location and data access, so think before you provide access. 

Manage App Permissions

Apps are a part of our daily lives. We use apps for almost everything like browsing, streaming, health monitoring, work, and more. So, it is important that we manage these apps so that they don’t have unauthorized access to your personal data. 

Managing app permissions is important for all apps you use, not just Mi Apps or Google apps. You can choose which permissions you want to provide an app. For example, you can choose to provide access to location, storage data, etc as you like. 

If you don’t want an app to access location or storage data, you can go to the Settings app and disable it from accessing location or storage data. Similarly, you can also restrict apps from accessing, cameras, microphones, sensors, and more. 

Managing app persimmon is important for privacy no matter which device you use, Android or iOS. With MIUI, you can easily manage app permissions using the Privacy protection section in the Settings app. 

You can even manage notifications of an app on your Xiaomi device. So if an app is disturbing you with annoying push notifications, you can choose to disable it. 

And with the introduction of Android 12, if an app is using your camera or microphone, you will be notified of it in the status bar with colored icons depending on what the app is using. 

Revoke Authorization

Some Mi apps like Mi Security, GetApps, Services & Feedback can be useful at times, but these apps also have permissions that you can not disable. And since they are tightly integrated with MIUI, you never know what they are doing with access to the permissions. 

So, the only option to make sure your data is safe is to revoke authorization for these apps. This will stop these apps from collecting data and delete any data that is stored on their servers. To revoke authorization for an app, do this,

Step 1 Open the Settings app on your Xiaomi phone.

Step 2 Tap on Passwords & Security.

Step 3 Click on Authorisation & Revocation. 

Step 4 Now, toggle off authorization for any app you want. 

Disable Glance (Lockscreen)

Glance is a feature that shows trending stories and news bits on your lock screen, it also cycles through images for your lock screen. However, Glance also displays ads and uses data collected on your phone to bring personalized stories. 

If you fear for your privacy, then disabling Glance is a good choice. To disable Glance on your Xiaomi device, follow these steps,

Step 1 Open the Settings app on your Xiaomi phone.

Step 2 Tap on Always-on display & Lockscreen. 

Step 3 Scroll down and tap on Glance for Mi to disable it.  

You will have a much clean lock screen without fear of your data being collected.

Disable User Experience Program and Diagnostic Data Collection

Xiaomi can also collect data about device usage to supposedly improve services. However, if you don’t want this, you can disable it. To disable the User Experience Program and Diagnostic Data Collection, follow these steps,

Step 1 Open the Settings app on your Xiaomi phone.

Step 2 Tap on Password &Security. 

Step 3 Now tap on Privacy.

Step 4 Toggle off User Experience Program and Diagnostic Data Collection.

Don’t use Mi Cloud

Mi Cloud is Xiaomi’s own cloud storage service. If you own a Xiaomi device, it is easy and convenient to sync and store data. However, many users fear the security of their data on Mi Cloud. If you are one of them, then should try other services like Google Drive. 

If you want to sync messages, contacts, and call logs, you can use apps like Truecaller. While Mi Cloud is encrypted, it is still better to trust safer third-party services. 

Disable Ads to Protect Data on your Xiaomi Smartphone

Ads are common in Xiaomi devices, especially in budget models. When you have ads enabled, Xiaomi will collect data and activity to provide you with targeted ads. This means that your data is at risk. 

On budget Xiaomi phones, ads can not be disabled but you can turn off ad recommendations. This means you will still receive ads but not based on your activity or data. So make sure to disable ads altogether or at least target ads for better privacy and data protection. 

Update your Xiaomi Phone Regularly

Make sure that your Xiaomi smartphone is up to date. Apart from new features and bug fixes, update also improve the security of your Xiaomi phone. This means you are less likely to get hacked and your data is safe. 

Updates may differ based on the model of the Xiaomi phone. With Mi or Xiaomi devices, you get 2 years of Android updates and 3 years of MIUI/security updates. On the other hand, with Redmi devices, you only get 1 year of Android updates and 2 years of MIUI/security updates. 

So, if you want the best security and privacy, go for Mi or Xiaomi phones. 

How to Protect Your Data on a Xiaomi Phone? – Conclusion

Xiaomi phones are usually considered to be bad for privacy and security. While this is true to some extent, you can still customize your Xiaomi phone to improve privacy and security. To better protect the data on your Xiaomi smartphone, do everything we have mentioned in this article.

We hope this guide on how to protect your data on a Xiaomi Phone was helpful. Let us know which ones you use and if you have any other methods that you personally use in the comments below. 

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