Slashdot Mirror
Microsoft To Acquire SwiftKey Predictive Keyboard Technology Company For $250M (hothardware.com)
MojoKid writes: SwiftKey has been one of the more popular predictive keyboard offerings in the mobile space since it was first released in beta form on the Android market back in 2010. What made SwiftKey so appealing was its intelligent predictive texting technology. SwiftKey isn't a simple keyboard replacement. Rather, the software uses a combination of artificial intelligence technologies that give it the ability to learn usage patterns and predict the next word the user most likely intends to type. SwiftKey refines its predictions, learning over time by analyzing data from SMS, Facebook, and Twitter messages, then offering predictions based on the text being entered at the time. It is estimated that SwiftKey is installed on upwards of 500 million mobile devices. According to reports, Microsoft is apparently buying the UK-based company for a cool $250 Million. What Microsoft intends to do with SwiftKey is not clear just yet, but the company has been purchasing mobile apps at a good clip as of late.
So what's everybody's favorite alternative, since SwiftKey is owned by a company that is nowadays renowned for its spyware and keylogging?
Does SwiftKey phone home what users are typing? $250 million seems a lot for an input method, more reasonable for a large set of data for them to analyze.
Based on recent attempts to push telemetry via updates and the monitoring built in to Windows 10, using SwiftKey as a key logger to gather information on mobile users seems possible.
What Microsoft intends to do with SwiftKey is not clear just yet
Ruin it, then stuff it full of Windows/Office money in the vain hope that this will hide their incompetence at diversifying.
I imagine they are getting more than just a predictive keyboard there are probably licensable patents as well services they can sell to more than just windows users.
If I where running Microsoft with the way windows mobile is perceived now I would be looking to get as many services, apps, and patents as possible that could be licensed in every other mobile OS and mobiles apps.
Purely to play Devil's advocate, but why would a keylogger show in a packet capture?
Microsoft sends home enough payloads of data that, if one was designing a super secret key logging mechanism, you'd just save up the data and send it with that stuff.
Sending packets with every keystroke would be wasteful and obvious.
Without seeing every data payload of what MS is including in their telemetry and other crap they've pushed into the OS, and accounting for all of it, I fail to see how you can make that conclusion.
If there's chunks of binary data MS won't tell you what it is, you have no way of knowing what's in it.
I have no idea what MS does and doesn't send, because I've never looked into it ... but hiding a keylogger from packet sniffing when you already call home?
That's not exactly rocket science. In fact, it's the kind of obvious solution when you're already sending other data.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.