FEATURE


Do You Know If Your Smartphone


Keyboard Is Leaking Your Personal Data?


By Olivier Plante, CEO of Fleksy


Most of us love our Smartphones though we have become increasingly aware of the risks they can pose to our data privacy. However most of us still don’t understand how data leaks can happen. With increased risk awareness, smartphone users often start using apps such as WhatsApp and Telegram – perceived safe havens for privacy, due to end- to-end encryption. However, even using such end-to-end encrypted apps, it is still possible


for data snoopers and harvesters to gain access to private data. By connecting with the cloud, some mobile keyboards used for streamlining and personalising typing can access and use data from your device. Anything you type, from personal conversations to passwords and credit card details, has the potential to be removed from your device via many keyboard apps. Such data can be leaked whenever keyboard apps sync with the


cloud. ‘Smart Suggestions’ are another security risk – they often upload information as you type in order to offer more intuitive suggestions. However, the use of ‘Smart Suggestions’ by some virtual keyboards comes with the risk of leaking your personal information There have been several notable cases of data leaks in recent


years. The personal data of over 31 million users of the AI.type virtual keyboard app leaked online in 2017 after the company failed to secure


the database’s server. Names, phone numbers, location data and Google searches were all found to have been leaked. The users of another different keyboard extension, Swiftkey, reported in


2016 that their keyboards were suggesting the email addresses and search phrases of other users. The bug was found to originate from SwiftKey’s cloud sync service, which had to be suspended. And while being investigated for intrusive ads in 2017, GO Keyboard, a widely-


used custom Android keyboard app was found to be collecting extensive user data, such as Google account information and even the user’s location. GO Keyboard was also found to be running external code, and was connected to dozens of third-party trackers and ad networks, meaning that the number of affected users ranged anywhere from 200 million to 1 billion. Even Google’s own Gboard keyboard extension gives the company another avenue to harvest its users’ search queries, regardless of whether it is used in conjunction with end-to-end encryption apps. Despite these problems, third-party keyboard apps have grown in popularity, mainly due to the


16 www.isopps.com Olivier Plante, CEO of Fleksy.


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