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.
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"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
(View all)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.
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
If Apple would just add a swipe keyboard and make their predictions better, there would be much less reason for people to seek out the SwiftKey solution.
This. 100% this. Apple should definitely add a swipe option to their keyboard. My wife and daughter both use Swype and, no hyperbole, they blaze so quickly across the keyboard. It looks like they are simply spreading finger grease on their screens. Somehow words magically appear. Their only complaints seem to be glitches caused by Apple's limitations. Apple could easily license the tech and make the stock keyboard better.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."
That's my feeling with a lot of what they promise these days.
Tell me about it, Siri is about a useless as tits on a bull. He/she rarely understands what I say and brings me everything but what I am asking for & need. The predictive & auto correct keyboard is just as bad. I type better and faster without it because when I am typing a word and click the space bar it changes the word I had right to something else. So I have to go back and change it back. It does that constantly so I am always loosing time having to reread everything I type and having to go back and change the words it got wrong. So I finally just quite using it as it was slowing me down. But I really wish they would perfect it as it does have promise and usefulness if they got things right.Siri is the same. Still as ****ing clueless about anything as on its first day.
Still never learned a thing from when I corrected words by hand, hoping it's a form of feedback that'll train her, because according to Apple Siri learns my speech on the fly.
It does **** all and the keyboard is pretty similar in that.
I hope they didn't invest a lot of time into these features, or they are just vapor features to begin with.
It doesn't take freaking mass data crunching to learn that when word B follows word A very frequently, maybe word B should get priority for word suggestions.
Glassed Silver:ios