Is it safe to use 3rd party keyboards?
We are in
an era of smart phones with full touch screen view. The soft keyboard comes
whenever require it and it doesn’t cover as clutter unlike in old qwerty based
hard keypads.
Most
android phones have got their own User Interface (UI) on the top of stock
Android OS. The UI basically tweaks for smoothing the user experience.
Various 3rd
party apps also come bundled with the above software. Third party keyboards
such as Flesky, Swiftkey, Swype etc. have got customization facility as per user need.
However, it has also got full user access for sharing anonymous un-encrypted
information about the keystrokes done by the user.
Which means, it would act as a Key-logger and transmit
sensitive information such as credit/ debit card numbers & net banking
credentials with the developer. The worst part is that, we neither be able to
know about when the data is sent to the company’s server, nor we can discuss this
with company’s website.
In iOS devices, we could able to install 3rd
party keyboards, but while entering sensitive information it automatically
changes to the default one.
It’s a good idea to use only proprietary keyboard (Gboard)
in android devices.
Happy Typing. :)
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