SwiftKey sharing users data with strangers
Swiftkey was an amazing keyboard that usurped swype as my default keyboard, I loved its predictions, its swiping to type tech and its overall layout and features. For a long time it worked great, then I grew enamored with other keyboards and moved on. Recently Microsoft bought the app for a cool $250 million. Awesome right? well it seems that SwiftKey sharing users data with strangers and just about anyone that asked… or didnt ask.
Multiple swiftkey users found other people phone numbers and emails or text predictions in languages not used or installed by the user. Swiftkey has announced that this is due to a synchronization “feature”. they have now disabled this bug feature and are working on fixing it.
This week, a few of our customers noticed unexpected predictions where unfamiliar terms, and in some rare cases emails, appeared when using their mobile phone. We are working quickly to resolve this inconvenience.
While this did not pose a security issue for our customers, we have turned off the cloud sync service and have updated our applications to remove email address predictions. During this time, it will not be possible to back up your SwiftKey language model.
The vast majority of SwiftKey users are not affected by this issue. If you have any reason to believe you are seeing unfamiliar predictions, please contact [email protected].
We take users’ privacy and security very seriously and are committed to maintaining world-class standards for our community.
We will continue to post further updates on our blog.
The SwiftKey Team
users everywhere are finding out about this and displaying some displeasure!
#SwiftKey Word Prediction Feature Disabled By @Microsoft After Data Leak Rumors: https://t.co/M3r3OFL5jU
— AT&T Cybersecurity (@attcyber) August 1, 2016
Good news ( sort of?) is the sync really is disabled as noticed by frustrated users complaining about it on twitter.
https://twitter.com/Regike_/status/758618048995659776
Guess we have to wait and see how far this rabbit hole goes. I personally am making sure I dont install swiftkey on any new devices, especially since I barely ever use it anymore.
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