Owners of Xiaomi and Redmi smartphones often face intrusive advertising, strange calls or feelings of surveillance, which raises the question of the need for urgent protection. Modern Android operating systems have powerful built-in protection mechanisms, but they require competent customization on the part of the user.
Many people confuse analytics data collection with real-world eavesdropping or malware, and in this article, we’ll look at how to distinguish between system processes and spyware and what specific steps you need to take on the Redmi Note 9 Pro.
Malware insertion or activation of hidden voice recorder functions can occur unnoticed, especially if the user has installed applications from unverified sources. Data security is not a static state, but a process that requires regular checks of your device's privacy settings.
There are several layers of protection, from the banal disabling of advertising identifiers to deep verification of microphone access rights, and ignoring these settings can lead to the leak of personal information, passwords or bank data through vulnerabilities in MIUI.
Diagnostics: signs of hidden surveillance on a smartphone
Before you go to radical measures, you need to make sure that there is a problem. There are indirect signs that indicate that your device may be under the control of third-party software. One of the first symptoms is an abnormally high battery consumption, which is not correlated with user activity.
Also worth paying attention to is the heating of the case in idle mode. If the phone is hot when it is on the table, then some process is actively using the resources of the processor, perhaps transmitting audio data or geolocation. Check the statistics in the Settings → Battery menu to identify “voracious” applications.
The second important indicator is unusual network behavior: even in the background, a smartphone does not have to constantly transmit large amounts of data, pop-up ads in unexpected places of the interface or spontaneous calls to short numbers are also alarming signals.
For accurate diagnosis, you can use special codes built into the MIUI shell. Type ##4636## in the dialer to go to the engineering menu, which displays usage statistics. If you see active connections that shouldn't be there, that's a cause for concern.
⚠️ Note: Not all background processes are viruses: Google and Xiaomi systems services can use the microphone for "OK, Google" functions or audio quality improvements, which is sometimes mistaken for surveillance.
Analysis of access rights to microphone and camera
The most effective way to combat wiretapping is to control app access rights, and modern versions of Android, including the MIUI 12 shell and later, have a Privacy Protection feature that captures all requests to sensors.
Go to Settings → Privacy → Privacy Protection. Here you will see a timeline that shows which app and when the microphone or camera was using it, and if the voice recorder or messenger accessed the microphone while you were not using it, it requires immediate intervention.
For each suspicious application, you need to change the permissions. Click on the program name and select "Permissions." Make sure that access to the microphone is set to "Request" mode or completely disallowed unless the feature is critical.
☑️ Access rights verification
Pay special attention to applications that should not have access to sound: flashlights, calculators, simple games or wallpaper. Often, under the guise of harmless utilities, spy modules that collect information about the user are hidden.
Android also has a “Clear Permissions” feature that allows you to reset rights for long-distant applications with one action, which helps minimize the attack surface and close potential loopholes for attackers.
Verification and removal of suspicious applications
The main attack vector on Redmi Note 9 Pro devices is the installation of malware by the user himself. Often viruses disguise themselves as system processes or useful utilities, without having an icon on the desktop, but remaining active in memory.
To identify these programs, go to Settings → Apps → All Apps. Study the list carefully. You should be alerted to apps without a name, with a transparent icon or a strange system name that you did not consciously install.
If you find a suspicious item, try removing it in the standard way. If the Delete button is inactive, then the application has received device administrator rights. In this case, go to Settings → Passwords and Security → Privacy → Device administrators and revoke the rights for the malicious object.
| Type of application | Signs of threat | Action |
|---|---|---|
| Systemic (untitled) | No icon, high battery consumption | Remove via ADB or Safe Mode |
| Lantern/Cleaning | Requires access to contacts and microphone | Remove immediately, replace with analogue |
| Game plugin | It works in the background, shows ads | Clear the data, remove the application |
| Unknown APK | Recently established, Latin name | Check with antivirus, remove |
How to remove an unremovable virus?
After removing all suspicious elements, it is recommended to conduct a full check with the built-in antivirus Security, which is preinstalled in MIUI. It uses databases from Avast and AVL, which allows you to identify most known threats.
Advertising and analytics settings MIUI
Many users consider the active collection of statistics by Xiaomi itself to be “wiretapping”, and although it is not criminally espionage, it reduces productivity and violates privacy. Fortunately, the Redmi Note 9 Pro can turn these features off.
The first step is to turn off personalized ads. Go to Settings → Passwords & Security → Access to Personal Data. Go to the msa (MIUI System Ads) list and turn off the slider. The system will ask you to wait 10 seconds before confirming — this is a mandatory procedure.
Next, limit analytics collection, and in the same menu, search for Analytics and Mi Daemon, denying them access to personal data, which will prevent them from sending device usage reports to the manufacturer's servers.
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To completely disable advertising in system applications (Conductor, Music, Downloads), you need to go to the settings of each of them separately and find the item "Receive recommendations" or "Show recommendations", switching it to the Off position.
Also, disable the advertising ID. Go to Settings → Passwords & Security → Privacy → Advertising Services and click Reset Ad ID, and then disable ad personalization. This will break the link between your device and your advertising profiles.
⚠️ Note: After disabling the msa service, the ads in the system applications may disappear not immediately, but within 24 hours.
Using Safe Mode and Resetting Settings
If manual cleaning didn't help and signs of wiretapping persist, it's possible that malware has penetrated deep into the system, in which case an effective diagnostic method is to run in safe mode, which only activates system components.
To enter Safe Mode on the Redmi Note 9 Pro, press and hold the power button. When the off icon appears on the screen, press it and hold your finger until you prompt it to go to Safe Mode. If the phone is behaving normally (not warming, not buzzing), then the problem is in a third-party app.
The radical but most reliable way to get rid of any wiretapping is to completely reset to factory settings.Be sure to back up important data before this procedure, as all files will be deleted. Go to Settings → About Phone → Reset → Erase all data.
After reset, do not restore apps from the old backup automatically, as you can return the virus back.Install the programs again only from the official Google Play store, checking reviews and access rights.
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Hard Reset is the only guaranteed way to remove complex spyware viruses that hide in system partitions and are not removed by standard methods.
Prevention and protection in the future
After successfully cleaning the device, it is important to maintain digital hygiene to prevent re-infection: Do not install applications from unknown sources and avoid sites with pirated content, which often contain hidden miners or Trojans.
Update your operating system regularly. In MIUI updates and Android security patches, developers are closing vulnerabilities that allow hackers to remotely access the microphone. Check for updates in Settings → About Phone.
Use two-factor authentication for all important accounts, and even if an attacker gets access to your phone, they won't be able to log into your email or cloud storage without a second confirmation code, which creates an additional security barrier.
Periodically check the list of devices connected to your Google account. If you see an unfamiliar gadget, immediately log out from all devices and change your password. Account control is a key element of personal data protection.