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Some Users Find Swype Keyboard App Makes 4000+ Location Requests Per Day
New submitter postglock (917809) writes "Swype is a popular third-party keyboard for Android phones (and also available for Windows phones and other platforms). It's currently the second-most-popular paid keyboard in Google Play (behind SwiftKey), and the 17th highest of all paid apps. Recently, users have discovered that it's been accessing location data extremely frequently, making almost 4000 requests per day, or 2.5 requests per minute. The developers claim that this is to facilitate implementation of 'regional dialects,' but cannot explain why such frequent polling is required, or why this still occurs if the regional function is disabled. Some custom ROMs such as Cyanogenmod can block this tracking, but most users would be unaware that such tracking is even occurring." Readers in the linked thread don't all seem to see the same thing; if you are a Swype user, do you see thousands of location requests, none, or something in between?
The Google Keyboard for Android sends what you're typing to Google servers 'to improve suggestions,' so I don't think that asking for your location a lot is the worst invasion of privacy of a mainstream on-screen keyboard app. The AOSP keyboard also requires a phenomenal list of permissions, including the ability to download files without notification, read contacts, modify or delete contents of USB storage and view accounts on the device. No idea why it needs all of these things - I wouldn't mind so much if it had access to all of my data for improving predictions if it didn't also have the ability to make network connections.
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
Maybe it will fist require a popular tech website to run a Top-10 Worst Privacy Infringing Apps in Google store.
Could as well flip it around and instead make a third party give a "Privacy Gold Star" for apps that don't infringe your privacy and don't require unnecessary permissions from the phone operating system.
This is one of the things I hate most about Android (having recently switched from an iphone to a Nexus5). I tried to install flashlight app but the top 5 or 10 all wanted egregious access to my phonecalls, instant messages, or full network access. I gave up.
Later I read a slashdot comment from an Android app developer who said shortly after making his app available in the Play Store, he started receiving messages from individuals offering to pay him a per-download commission on his app if he would consent to linking their "library" in with his app... It was a very attractive commission... So that explains the requests for access to unreasonable things... I don't know how this is different in IOS-land... Maybe the apps just get that access without anyone knowing? Or maybe someone at the App store decides whether a flashlight app needs access to instant message logs ...