A week after launching a new emoji-predicting keyboard, SwiftKey is now facing some pushback after a few users noticed that the main SwiftKey app was propagating suggestions related to the email accounts, phone numbers, and names of complete strangers (via The Telegraph). The Microsoft-owned app, available on iOS and Android, is widely known for its artificial intelligence and machine learning tools, which create custom word predictions based on what each user has previously typed.
In order to fully take advantage of these features, SwiftKey accesses various personal bits of information -- previous texts, emails, and regularly used names and phrases -- to bolster its database, with a synchronization feature that keeps all of a user's data updated across various devices. Now, one SwiftKey user has discovered that someone unknown to them was given access to this data thanks to the app's predictive features. Thankfully, the stranger was helpful in informing the compromised user about their privacy slip.
"A few days ago, I received an email from a complete stranger asking if I had recently purchased and returned a particular model of mobile phone, adding that not one but two of my email addresses (one personal and one work address) were saved on the phone she had just bought as brand-new," said the user. "It also suggested, when she typed a zero, the telephone number for someone I had phoned recently."
According to the anonymous source, the stranger went through every letter in the alphabet and got predictive suggestions of the affected user's contact list and even the address of private servers used to connect to the internet at their workplace. A similar occurrence happened for one Redditor recently, but this time it crossed a language barrier as well, with German predictions of private information suggested for a user in the United Kingdom.
According to SwiftKey, the problem stems from a bug in that synchronization feature, so the company has deactivated syncing information across devices until it can get to the root of the problem. A spokesperson for the company said, "Recently, a limited number of our customers noticed unexpected words pre-populating when typing on their mobile phone," but promised users that the app is "okay to use" in the meantime given the low number of users affected and that their personal data will not be lost while the sync ability is down.
Top Rated Comments
For example, I'm often typing out a town name called Sugar Hill. I've been doing this for years with the Apple keyboard. Even so, when I type in "Sugar" and then add a space, the predictions from the Apple keyboard are "and", "in", and "daddy". If I toggle the caps lock on to make it even more obvious that I want it to predict "Hill", the predictions simply change to "And", "In", and "Daddy". I don't think I've used the term "Sugar Daddy" a single time on any of my iOS devices.
In my experience, Apple's keyboard does not seem to learn based on what you type despite the fact that Apple says it does.
C'mon Apple listen to Teddy KGB in Rounders: "Pay him... pay that man his money."
Is the implementation still as ****** as before on the latest iOS releases?
I haven't checked in a while, but I'd love to use something other than the awful stock keyboard again, I'm just not into crashes, the keyboard not showing or these sorts of shenanigans (well, I wouldn't grant online access anyways)
Glassed Silver:mac
Never did I grant it, but when a keyboard wouldn't work without it, it got binned.
That's all.
Why? Not because a leak like this may occur, but because I don't know if I can trust the developer with my data.
All it takes is one screwed update or one nosey government agency.
Sorry, but for what I'm looking for in a keyboard it doesn't have to connect to jack all, so if it asks for more than I'm comfortable granting it's gone.
Glassed Silver:mac