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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?
... than malice.
Or malice (location tracking) plus gross incompetence in implementation.
I apologize for the lack of a signature.
"Regional dialects". :D What an explanation.
Hey, at least those cans and string aren't draining our batteries unnecessarily and uploading our every move to some company doing who knows what with it.
-mrxak
Onions Will Kill You
Each time an App wanted to update in the last 6 months, it was to increase its access to areas of my Samsung phone that I thought were completely un-necessary for it to work properly. Makes you wonder who in the Google Store is rubber stamping the ok on such Apps! When will privacy groups wake up and start lawsuits against App makers and/or Google? Maybe it will fist require a popular tech website to run a Top-10 Worst Privacy Infringing Apps in Google store.
Has anyone, who uses these apps, noticed diminished battery life?
I can track you - I just follow the string to find you wherever you are. (What *are* you doing in that closet?)
Todd: I hope it proves as delicious as the farmers that grew them
If anytime, they should only do that when I launch it the first time. And otherwise, it should look at the setings my phone is using and ONLy as a way to sufets what you want, not to set it.
Mind you, they are not the only ones who think language and location are related. Among others, Google does this too. It does not look at my browser settings (which are in English) but instead guesses from my IP what language I should prefer. I live in Belgium aand guessing the language by location is wrong a LOT of the times.
There is a reason why my browser setting is in English. That is because I WANT it in English. And just because I visit my parents in Spain or my sister in Germany or friends in the USofA does not mean there is any change in preferece in my language.
To me it is broken by design.
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
I am using multiling keyboard which allows swype input and doesn't even need network permission nor anything else than the user dictionary. https://play.google.com/store/...
Move Sig. For great justice.
Unlike what the summary claims, Swype is not available on Windows Phone. Microsoft will however be rolling out their own, similar keyboard soon as part of 8.1. Hopefully one that doesn't do 4000 location requests per day.
Why doesn't the OS keep track it it's moving of not (all those wonderful sensors) and then have the app ask the OS for the location? If it's sitting on my desk, it shouldn't need to check it's location every 24 seconds.
Android can already do this. The Amazon App store and F-Droid (FOSS) are 2 options.
Windows Phone has a similar solution, but it's Microsoft's own implementation.
That's why people used lbe privacy manager, pdroid earlier (both are more or less dead) and now there is another way out - XPrivacy. I don't think standalone games or keyboard apps such as Swype should be able to read my identification like imei, serial or msisdn (number), network id, location, bookmarks, contats, sms, etc. etc. and then possibly report this info over internet. Block everything - leave access only to parts it's supposed to get (like clipboard, storage). It's even more terrifying to see what completely unrelated to their functionality content top gmarket apps like facebook or candy crush saga are trying to acces and how frequently. Latest CM roms have some privacy controls embedded. That's good but still not enough.
I tried years ago the trial, saw the permission. When i saw that it was used all the time (LBE Privacy Guard. Use XPrivacy today), i uninstalled it.
Try SwiftKey, the swipe is better than Swype, anyway.
Swype is a popular third-party keyboard for Android phones (and also available for Windows phones and other platforms).
I know it's popular to bash Microsoft and their products, but Swype is not available for Windows Phone. Windows Phone 8.1 adds a "Word Flow Keyboard", but it is developed by Microsoft as part of their OS. Third party developers cannot create keyboards for Windows Phone.
But you don't have to take my word for it. Currently Windows Phone does not support Swype.
Competition in just the stores? No, I want competition in the base install that doesn't void the warranty via rooting. The devices come with all kinds of crap installed in a way that makes them un-installable - just "stoppable".
For the last year (roughly), it's autosuggestions have gotten worse- not better. Sometimes it suggests a word I've never even heard of over a much more common word. It even puts the common word in the auto complete/correction list.
But repeatedly auto complete/correcting it doesn't seem to dissuade it from choosing the weird word.
She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
little do you know that I have tapped your can and string communications with my own string!
have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
Aside from the stupidity, it could be costing you.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
You not allowed to ask me that question. At least not in some states, or the military.
If you think I voted for Trump because of this post, you're wrong. I voted for Dr. Jill Stein of the Green Party. Again.
If you go into the settings of the keyboard (a few levels down from "language and input" on Android) there is an option to contribute usage data. I bet if you turn that off it'll stop.
and we detected your tap and have been feeding you misinformation all along.
Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
Since when is just not using something a solution to a problem of artificial scarcity?
The whole problem is that the App does what it is supposed to do...the system works...it's that for purely abstract economic beliefs the makers of the App make arbitrary intrusions into your personal information
The whole problem is that people look at this relationsship and **do not see a problem of design**...instead the other option is to, essentially, "fsck off"
No. Stop using this logic when discussing the solution to a systemic problem *forever*...you're just wasting everyone's time
The factors of production for any product, even an Android App, can be controlled and manipulated...
These Apps dont just appear magically...people have to spend alot of time and intention to make them...even the ridiculous shitty ones
Someone must make the time/effort to make the App...**that person** or the people directing them...they **chose** to make theirs system abusive by violating user privacy
Your "just don't use it" retort is a nothing response...its' not an argument or counterpoint...just a contextless expression of an obvious and non-viable option within the context of the discussion
If the car is going the wrong way, you can surely *get out of the car*...or you can...you know...turn the car around in the right direction
Thank you Dave Raggett
ridiculous news stories, anti-logic Congress Bills, TED Talks, and unfortunately alot of published research in the Social Sciences
it's about the editorial function...something bean counters and oligarchs both see as unecessary...
apply to coding appropraitely...the paralells of system dynamics are everywhere
Thank you Dave Raggett
When you see how militant some Slashdot users get about whether or not to spell "color" with a "u", you'll understand.
First of all ever app operates in it's own sandbox, so no app can access the data of another app.
Is this why users can't upload text documents created in a word processing app to a web form?
Secondly, yes, there's an app reviewer, assisted by automated tools, that's looking for whether your app does bad things.
I would like to know what this app reviewer currently considers to be "bad things", so that I know what applications I won't have any chance of finding in the App Store before I spend $299 plus tax on a device. Unlike Microsoft, which publishes its review guidelines for Windows Store and Windows Phone Store, Apple has chosen to keep this information behind the iOS Developer Program paywall. The widely leaked version of iOS Guidelines is three and a half years old.
Thirdly, things such as requesting your location, as in this Swype example, then the OS pops up a dialog asking permission when the app first tries to do it. You can allow it or deny it. And you can change the permission whenever you like via the settings app.
To what extent does Apple require that applications for iOS remain functional when the user has chosen to deny permission? For example, to what extent does Apple Maps or any other navigation application remain functional when the user has chosen to deny GPS location? Otherwise, an application could just show a static screen "To use this app, please open Settings and change Location to Allow." and sit there until the user presses the Home button.
Of course there's competition in the base install. You can buy a Nexus phone or tablet that doesn't come with most of this crapware, or you can buy a Kindle Fire tablet that doesn't phone home to Google at all.
Third party developers cannot create keyboards for Windows Phone.
Without a facility for third-party assistive tools, how does Microsoft manage to make text input on Windows Phone and Windows RT accessible to users with disabilities?
Dictionary updates can't be bundled when you have 80+ languages
Then the maker of Swype should release a dictionary app for each language, with a name like "Swype in Hinglish". Because different Android applications built with the same publisher certificate can communicate pretty much freely, the word completion would rely on a database stored in the dictionary app. (Only updates to standard English would trigger updates of the Swype app itself.) Then the user could install an app for each language that she uses, and when the maker of Swype wants to update a dictionary, it can push the upgrade for just that app through Google Play Store.
Reading contacts- It suggests my contact's names a fair amount of the time.
Then the maker of Swype should release a dictionary app called "Swype Knows Your Name" that provides your contacts' names to the main Swype app. Paranoid people who don't want their contacts' names added to autocomplete would just choose not to install "Swype Knows Your Name".
Try finding either one of those on the Google Play store. Most users aren't going to go google for alternatives
"Put other app stores in Google because most users won't Google." I don't see how that makes any sense. If most users aren't going to use Google Search to search for alternatives, why would they use Google Play Store to search for alternatives?
The only thing [the App Store review process] should be screening for is malware.
A lot of arguments are won and lost on defining terms. The question you're implicitly asking is who gets to define malware. Apple thinks any application that can reconfigure your device's Wi-Fi settings is malware. But if you seek a tool to discover or troubleshoot Wi-Fi networks, then you disagree that it is malware. And this disagreement is why the WiFi-Where application is not available for iPod touch, iPhone, or iPad.
Yeah. Now in the real world multi-lingual users don't want to download multiple keyboards and switch between them, and if you release multiple keyboards with multiple feature sets you just have an organization nightmare that will confuse users. Plus you seem unprofessional- what app on your phone or your computer can't just download needed extensions automatically when you hit the install button for the feature? Nothing made in the last 10 years.
I still have more fans than freaks. WTF is wrong with you people?
Now in the real world multi-lingual users don't want to download multiple keyboards and switch between them
You'd download one app (Swype) and it'd come with the English dictionary. Then you'd download additional apps (Swype en español, Swype auf Deutsch, Swype Knows Your Name, Swype Local, etc.) that provide dictionary services to the main Swype app. Only Swype Knows Your Name would see contacts, and only Swype Local would see location.
what app on your phone or your computer can't just download needed extensions automatically when you hit the install button for the feature?
When you tap Install, it'd take you to the extension's Play Store page to download it.
Facebook, cant even run from SD card, cant even use Sdcard data... Just waste the space on the main core flash.
Are there idiots at facebook?
Liberty freedom are no1, not dicks in suits.
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.
Permissions Manager LBE is the kind of thing Apple would never allow on iOS. You can fine-tune any app's permissions *after* install, and even autoblock bundled spyware.
Da Blog
Been killing my battery, it's ridiculous. But Samsung keyboard sucks. And so far those are the only reduced scale keyboard options.
xPrivacy on my phone shows that Swype did something called "requestLocationUpdates" 10 hours ago. Some other GPS related stuff also happened 10 hours ago.
"requestLocationUpdates" is like a subscription, so any app on the phone that stays subscribed to that will get updates whenever the phone OS thinks the location has changed. Since we don't know what parameters this was called with, we can't even say if it's going to trigger GPS to switch on. It probably doesn't, based on my excellent battery life.
Altering permissions after install is standard on iOS. And of course there is no bundled spyware.
1) iOS permission request handling is crude, not granular, and accepts as default and not presented certain basics such as net access. As usual, you are stuck with what Apple deigns to expose to the user.
2) As for the latter, what do you call advertising frameworks and analytics?
Da Blog
iOS has some features that Android doesn't have many of them being security features. Which is why 97% of mobile malware is on Android and 0% is on iOS (2013 figures).
If you stick to Google Play Store and other well-known stores in the developed world, such as Amazon and F-Droid, I'm guessing 96.9% won't reach you. I think China skews the results.
You certainly don't need a specific device to browse the Apple App store.
I was under the impression that the App Store client was iTunes, which ran only on iOS, OS X, and Windows. So you are correct that I don't need a specific device, but as a user of a minority desktop operating system, I would need to license a specific paid proprietary operating system to run in a virtual machine on my current computer. Or what am I missing?
As to "the potential to do a specific app", sorry but that's not what real users are interested in. If there's no actual app, then it does them no good.
Just to make sure I'm understanding you correctly, I'll put it in my own words. You appear to claim people buy a device on the basis of apps for the device published prior to the purchase, not on the promise of apps becoming available later. If so, then why do people buy video game consoles in the first month after launch when they have only a handful of compatible games?
only a human can decide if what an app is doing is reasonable.
And humans have declared Wi-Fi network logging and troubleshooting unreasonable.
There is no recurring fee to users. As to why Apple don't just abandon the app review system and let any developer upload anything
It's not about uploading. Compare the situation on iOS to the Mac App Store. Apple requires payment to upload an app to the Mac App Store, but running apps compiled on your own machine remains without charge. On iOS, Apple charges for both.
And the app quality is distinctly poorer.
For some people, the chance of ending up with a poor app after having not read reviews is better than having no app at all.