Android is an open-source operating system known for its customizable nature. OEMs generally develop their own skins that run on top of Android to distinguish the UI on their phones from the plethora of devices in the market. ColorOS is one such UI developed by OPPO that has, in recent times, improved by a big margin. It’s right up there with some of the best custom UIs in terms of features, and with ColorOS 12, the brand is now majorly focusing on user privacy.

ColorOS 12: Privacy Features

As the world of Android phones prepares for the highly anticipated release of Android 12, ColorOS is integrated and improves on all of the new privacy features. The latest update for ColorOS is ColorOS 12, based on Android 12. Users can expect to find new features like the Privacy Dashboard, microphone and camera indicators, and approximate location sharing. On top of integrating these Android 12 features, ColorOS 12 includes its own privacy tool called Anti-peeping Notifications.

Anti-peeping Notifications is a smart feature that prevents the people around you from snooping into the notifications on your phone. Whenever you receive a notification on your lockscreen, the contents of the notification will be hidden till the time the phone detects that it’s you who is looking at the phone. In simple terms, the phone scans for your face and displays the contents of the notifications only if the correct face is detected. If someone else’s face is detected, the phone will hide the notifications. It’s quite an effective and smart way to protect users’ privacy.


A History of Prioritizing Privacy

With over 400 million global users around the world, OPPO’s ColorOS has made privacy a priority since the beginning to keep user information safe. By focusing strongly on this area, OPPO has developed several important privacy features since ColorOS 7. With ColorOS 12, privacy on OPPO devices is being strengthened by the addition of new features and by giving users control over what they want to share with third-party apps.

ColorOS private safe

One stand-out feature that’s been around for a while on ColorOS is the system cloner. This feature creates a dual system or a secondary space on your phone that can be accessed with a separate password. You can even assign a different fingerprint to quickly get into the cloned space directly from the lock screen. This has been a good solution for anyone who leaves their phone unattended or often shares their phone with other people.

The Permission Manager of ColorOS7 lets you go through all of your permissions, and restrict or grant access to the apps trying to read your data.

There are many situations where apps insist on you granting access to certain permissions in order to function properly. The Personal Information Protection feature is a very clever way to bypass this situation. Once protection is enabled, ColorOS will send apps empty information, tricking the app into accessing blank data while protecting your original information.

ColoroS 11 privacy password

OPPO developed Private Safe as an option for you to store your private files. When you add images, videos, audio, or other types of files to your private space, they will only be accessible via a password. This makes your files unavailable to applications that read your media.


Data Compliance to Keep your Information Private

Users have legitimate reasons to be concerned about where their data is being sent, and who has access to it. To address these concerns, data centers are established in different markets, which allows the data to be preserved and transmitted locally. Besides, any data that passes through these data centers are secured in an encrypted format and is protected from any external attacks.

Frequent Security Patches

Another important aspect of user privacy is making sure that your system is up-to-date with the latest security patches. OPPO will be working closely with Google to ensure that their flagship devices receive monthly security updates. The other series of OPPO smartphones will receive quarterly security patches. For major security vulnerabilities, updates will be prioritized and implemented outside of their regular schedule.

To reassure ColorOS users that their system is safe and secure, OPPO uses third-party organizations such as ePrivacy and ISO27001, which provide certifications based on privacy audits. Because of this, OPPO is always committed to providing industry-leading privacy and security tools in ColorOS 12.

ColorOS has come a long way since its inception. It’s one of the most matured UIs in recent times and has now made its way to OnePlus devices too after their recent codebase merger with OxygenOS. ColorOS has always been rich in features and these new privacy additions improve the overall security and usability of the OS.

A lot of these features like System Cloner and Personal Information Protection are quite helpful and go a long way in improving the user experience on any smartphone. Since privacy is a matter of concern to a lot of users, these new Android 12 features being integrated with ColorOS will go a long way in assuring users that they have control over their data.

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