A method for protecting privacy information in a mobile terminal, including: granting, by the mobile terminal, user access according to an operation of a user, the granted access corresponding to the operation; enabling, by the mobile terminal, a protection mechanism set for the privacy information to be effective if the granted access does not include access to the privacy information; and disabling, by the mobile terminal, the protection mechanism set for the privacy information to be ineffective if the granted access includes access to the privacy information.