Are All Third-Party Keyboards Keystroke Loggers?

[netnative]

Please click on ?About Third-Party Keyboards & Privacy? in Keyboards Settings and read carefully. Apple states that "f you enable Full Access, developers are permitted to access, collect and transmit all the data you type.? This means to ?transmit that information to the keyboard developer?s servers.? Therefore, enabling "full access" is tantamount to installing a keystroke logger for the developer. Moreover, some third-party keyboards are ?free.? I have read that when you do not pay for an app you are the product rather than the customer. Is there a third-party keyboard that does not require "full access" for predictive text or are all third-party keyboards keystroke loggers?

 

[gordol]

Technically, yes, they are all keyboard loggers. Including the one that Apple gives you as part of the device. In order for a keyboard to work, it has to "intercept" the keyboard data stream. Whether you trust the developer or not is up to you.

 

[netnative]

Technically, yes, they are all keyboard loggers. Including the one that Apple gives you as part of the device. In order for a keyboard to work, it has to "intercept" the keyboard data stream. Whether you trust the developer or not is up to you.

My issue is not with the third-party keyboard intercepting the data stream but with transmitting the data outside the device. BlackBerry OS 10 has a great keyboard with predictive text and I have not read that the data I type is transmitted to BlackBerry.

 

[gordol]

My issue is not with the third-party keyboard intercepting the data stream but with transmitting the data outside the device. BlackBerry OS 10 has a great keyboard with predictive text and I have not read that the data I type is transmitted to BlackBerry.

Like I said, it's up to you to decide if you trust the developer or not. SwitftKey, Swype and (I think) Flesky have both been around for some time on other platforms with no security/privacy issues I'm aware of.

 

[netnative]

Like I said, it's up to you to decide if you trust the developer or not. SwitftKey, Swype and (I think) Flesky have both been around for some time on other platforms with no security/privacy issues I'm aware of.

I downloaded SwiftKey and deleted it soon after reading the Full Access warning.

 

[Highrisedrifter]

I downloaded SwiftKey and deleted it soon after reading the Full Access warning.

That is entirely your prerogative, of course. I've been using Swiftkey for years on my Android devices and have never experienced anything untoward. As gordol says, Swiftkey and Swype etc are very well established in the community and none of them have exhibited any security flaws or issues.

You pays yer money, yer takes yer choice. It's entirely up to you whether you trust them or not.

Personally I prefer the stock keyboard because of the voice input function that is not currently available on third party keyboards. However, if Swiftkey add that plus a top row of numbers into the keyboard then I would go back to it happily.

 

[sau124]

Yes, all the third party keyboards are loggers. If I understand it right, Apple keyboard is not a logger as the logic is built within the software.

As with more advance recommendations that some of these new keyboards provide they have to log every keystroke and every sentence for better guesses. Easy target for hackers to get all the information.

 

[Ledsteplin]

I downloaded SwiftKey and deleted it soon after reading the Full Access warning.

It's not an issue. Apple restricts the 3rd Party keyboards from security sensitive places, like the App Store, Bank apps, PayPal, Amazon, QVC, The Apple Store app and etc. they may not work in Safari either.


Sent from my ancient but trustworthy iPhone 5

 

[iEd]

My bank app allowed swiftkey to be used so I switched to the stock keyboard to input my info.

 

[Ledsteplin]

My bank app allowed swiftkey to be used so I switched to the stock keyboard to input my info.

Did you type anything on your bank app? I was using SwiftKey, and went to the App Store. When I tried to review an app, I could not see the text field. Apple was blocking it. So if you had typed in your bank app, you and the SwiftKey would not have seen the text.


Sent from my ancient but trustworthy iPhone 5