Privacy with Google's Gboard

The only app I can’t live without. Except for gboard, all of my applications are Foss. There is no competition for gboard’s swipe typing, not to mention its many capabilities like as searching for gifs, stickers, being able to paste copied images, translating, and so on. I’d like to know how I can use gboard while maintaining my privacy. According to what I’ve heard, it sends all typing data to Google’s server. If you ask me, that’s a massive no-no. Do you have any suggestions?

FuckyWucky,

I use SwiftKey with internet access turned off. Works well enough though obviously the gif and stickers won’t work.

LaughingFox,
@LaughingFox@lemmy.world avatar

I hate Gboard. So I use SwiftKey which is the best one.

Sucuk,
@Sucuk@kbin.social avatar

OpenBoard, Florisboard, AnySoftKeyboard

THERE ARE ALTERNATIVES, PEOPLE!

botorfj,

this

argv_minus_one,

I installed all three.

OpenBoard has no swiping support at all.

AnySoftKeyboard is glitchy, moving the cursor around unexpectedly and inserting spurious characters.

FlorisBoard’s swiping is very inaccurate, to the point that it’s barely faster than typing characters one-by-one.

I hope this situation improves soon…

Sucuk,
@Sucuk@kbin.social avatar

Well uhhh, kinda late, but the "original" openboard project hasn't got an update in like, 12 months. There are forks, though.

Fork with glide typing - Haven't received an update in 11 months https://github.com/erkserkserks/openboard

"New" fork: https://github.com/Helium314/openboard

argv_minus_one,

Good to hear. Hopefully at least one of these forks lands in F-Droid soon.

razieltakato,

I dropped gboard and started using FlorisBoard. It’s a lot more crude and don’t have the same features, but I’m very happy with it and will not go back.

I preffer my privacy over features, and using the software and reporting feedback helps it betting better.

We really need to ditch Google.

mister_monster,

OpenBoard.

schmensch,

A lot oft ROMs allow you go completely disable Internet access for a certain app. Disabling the data collection toggles in GBoard and disabling internet access for GBoard, Play Services, Play Store and the Google App should prevent most logging.

hiire,
@hiire@lemmy.world avatar

Does Lineage allow this? It’s the rom I’m considering for my Galaxy Note 10

schmensch,

Sorry for the late reply but yes, this works on Lineage, one of the reasons I’m using it!

NENathaniel,
@NENathaniel@lemmy.ca avatar

I’ve tried a bunch and tbh haven’t found anything sufficiently good for my standards

Teppichbrand, (edited )

I use the AOSP keyboard with this magisk module.

Tramdan,

There’s a fork of OpenBoard with swipe typing at github.com/erkserkserks/openboard

I’ve found this to be better than any of the alternatives.

samsy,

I use the same, it’s just openboard + the propetary swipe lib

Nr97JcmjjiXZud,
@Nr97JcmjjiXZud@infosec.pub avatar

F-Droid has a lot of security issues(if you care about security), use Neo Store if you want access to F-Droid apps with a more secure app.

EDIT: Even better to use Obtainium and add the links of the APP’s own Github/GitLab repo to it.

NENathaniel,
@NENathaniel@lemmy.ca avatar

Any chance u can explain how Neo Store is more secure?

glacier,
@glacier@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

Neo Store can enable automatic updates for apps downloaded from F-Droid.

clmbmb,

And how does that make it more secure?

glacier,
@glacier@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

I don’t think it would make F-Droid itself more secure, but it’s best to get possible security updates for apps sooner with auto-updates.

notenoughbutter,

iirc fdroid utilizes very old api which is problematic as newer api gets newer security features droidify and neostore both are more modern

milicent_bystandr,

I read through that article, and though I don’t have the time or knowledge to properly critique it, I found quite a lot of it unconvincing.

It’s one thing to agree there are potential issues, but the article seemed to jump a bit too easily, via rhetoric more than logic, to “therefore it’s unsuitable” and similarly to “the other ones are better”.

(Disclaimer: I only know mildly what I’m talking about!! If whoever reads this is interested, I hope you can follow the details to their source and get involved in the proper discussion for improving f-droid and/or encouraging another respiratory client.)

Nr97JcmjjiXZud,
@Nr97JcmjjiXZud@infosec.pub avatar

Here are a couple of videos that try to explain it a little easier.

Video 1

Video 2

argv_minus_one,

A tempting idea would be to compare F-Droid to the desktop Linux model where users trust their distribution maintainers out-of-the-box (this can be sane if you’re already trusting the OS anyway), but the desktop platform is intrinsically chaotic and heterogeneous for better and for worse. It really shouldn’t be compared to the Android platform in any way.

This is, quite frankly, borderline misinformation. Malicious packages in Linux distributions are unheard of. Malicious apps in the allegedly-more-secure Google Play, on the other hand, are a dime a dozen.

The downplaying of the importance of reproducible builds further diminishes my opinion of this piece.

I’m going to go ahead and continue using F-Droid, thanks.

argv_minus_one,

A tempting idea would be to compare F-Droid to the desktop Linux model where users trust their distribution maintainers out-of-the-box (this can be sane if you’re already trusting the OS anyway), but the desktop platform is intrinsically chaotic and heterogeneous for better and for worse. It really shouldn’t be compared to the Android platform in any way.

This is, quite frankly, borderline misinformation. Malicious packages in Linux distributions are unheard of. Malicious apps in the allegedly-more-secure Google Play, on the other hand, are a dime a dozen.

The downplaying of the importance of reproducible builds further diminishes my opinion of this piece.

I’m going to go ahead and continue using F-Droid, thanks.

Nr97JcmjjiXZud,
@Nr97JcmjjiXZud@infosec.pub avatar

What exactly are you trying to point out ?

From your quote: “It really shouldn’t be compared to the Android platform in any way.”

And where exactly does it downplay reproducible builds ? “reproducible builds are not as common as we would have wanted.”

“I’m going to go ahead and continue using F-Droid, thanks.” Good friend, do whatever it is you want to do.

I’m just trying to spread security awareness.

EDIT: “Saying Play Store is filled with malicious apps is beyond the point: the false sense of security is a real issue. Users should not think of the F-Droid main repository as free of malicious apps, yet unfortunately many are inclined to believe this.”

argv_minus_one,

From your quote: “It really shouldn’t be compared to the Android platform in any way.”

I quoted that because it’s part of the borderline misinformation. Security is security. Malware is malware. Android isn’t magical and neither is desktop Linux. They absolutely can be meaningfully compared.

And where exactly does it downplay reproducible builds ? “reproducible builds are not as common as we would have wanted.”

Ah, you’re right. I misread that part, sorry.

I’m just trying to spread security awareness.

So am I. I’m an ornery old Linux nerd and security snob. I’d excise all proprietary software from my home and office if I could, precisely because it has such an appalling track record and the blatantly unnecessary attack surfaces of DRM and telemetry.

Can F-Droid be more secure than it is? Sure. Do the issues described in this paper mean F-Droid is so rampantly insecure that even Play is safer? Absolutely not.

By the way, I’m not sure I understand how Neo Store is supposed to be more secure, as it’s supposedly just an alternative UI for F-Droid. As for Obtainium, it’ll protect you from malfeasance or compromise on the part of the F-Droid repository, but it won’t protect you from malicious app developers, and unless I’m mistaken, the latter is a much more common threat.

Nr97JcmjjiXZud,
@Nr97JcmjjiXZud@infosec.pub avatar

“I quoted that because it’s part of the borderline misinformation. Security is security. Malware is malware. Android isn’t magical and neither is desktop Linux. They absolutely can be meaningfully compared.”

That’s why the author said it’s tempting. You cannot compare desktop Linux to Android. Android is light-years ahead in terms of security than desktop Linux will ever be.

If you install Debian on your machine then that means you trust the Debian developers. If you trust the Debian developers then that means that you trust their repositories. The same cannot be said about Android. If you, for example, install GrapheneOS you’re trusting the graphene developers for the OS and the individual developers for their individual apps you install on your phone.

On Android a compromised user doesn’t have root, on ordinary Linux desktops, a compromised non-root user with access to sudo is equal to a full root compromise. On a Linux desktop with Xorg you can easily keylog everything with one malicious app(that app automatically gets these permissions without prompting you), with modern Android that’s not even an option(you’d need to accept all of these invasive permissions yourself, unless the app has a zero day that can bypass permissions).

The list goes on and on and on. You can read more here

“Ah, you’re right. I misread that part, sorry.”

No biggie :D

“By the way, I’m not sure I understand how Neo Store is supposed to be more secure, as it’s supposedly just an alternative UI for F-Droid.”

Neo store has the highest target SDK currently so it can use security and privacy APIs that Android provides with each new version. That alone is one of the biggest reasons to use neo store over native F-Droid. It shows you the target SDK, permissions (Way more understandable than whatever F-Droid does) & trackers for the apps you want to install. So you can make a more informed decision if you want that app installed.

“As for Obtainium, it’ll protect you from malfeasance or compromise on the part of the F-Droid repository, but it won’t protect you from malicious app developers, and unless I’m mistaken, the latter is a much more common threat.”

You are adding more attack surface when using F-Droid, but when using Obtainium, you have one less attack surface. Instead of worrying about malicious F-Droid developers and malicious app developers, you only worry about the latter. Malicious app developers can still publish to F-Droid without F-Droid getting compromised.

Nyanix,
@Nyanix@lemmy.ca avatar

I always see people recommend FlorisBoard, but I haven’t been able to leave OpenBoard for it on the basis of never getting autocorrect to work on FlorisBoard. Is that implemented and I’m not setting it up right, or do you all manage to text with 100% accuracy?

communist,
@communist@beehaw.org avatar

github.com/florisboard/florisboard/pull/2209

This is the pull request that implements that.

Nyanix,
@Nyanix@lemmy.ca avatar

Holy monkeys!!! I’m absolutely giving this a shot right after work today, thank you so much!

confetti_8tVST5,

Its not implemented yet but its coming based off of this discussion and yeah I misspell sometimes but not as much as one would think.

Nyanix,
@Nyanix@lemmy.ca avatar

This is such a relief to read, I was getting the feeling that it’d been abandoned, and not having autocorrect yet, it was hard to pull the trigger. Thank you so much for sharing this

bugsmith,
@bugsmith@programming.dev avatar

To those who have been recommending Florisboard in this thread: Thank you. I’ve longed for a good FOSS keyboard, but always found they lacked enough features that I was willing to compromise and stick with gboard. Florisboard, using the latest beta from IzzyOnDroid, absolutely hits the mark already. It’s missing a few features, like word autosuggest, but I can live without that for a while.

sounddrill,

Eh, florisboard is better

DeltaTangoLima,
@DeltaTangoLima@reddrefuge.com avatar

It’s only better for privacy. It’s definitely still behind in features.

I’m going to partially take that back. I just realised I hadn’t added Florisboard Beta in my Obtainium after switching to a new phone. We now have suggestions! I miss gif searching but, meh, I can live without that.

Edit: well, kinda. There’s a PR waiting to introduce “proper” suggestions. Right now in the beta, there’s a suggestions panel, but it doesn’t appear to be using the dictionary yet.

communist,
@communist@beehaw.org avatar

github.com/florisboard/florisboard/pull/2209

As soon as this gets merged, I’m done with Gboard I hope.

AphoticDev,
@AphoticDev@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

What do you mean, no competition? SwiftKey was the first to have swipe typing, and still does it best, because it learns how you swipe and adjusts itself for that.

ijeff,
@ijeff@lemdro.id avatar

Swype was the first to have it. It did so amazingly well and was better than SwiftKey while it was still around.

SeaJ,

I loved Swype. Nuance made it a pile of shit though. One annoying thing after they bought it was that ‘K.’ would always autocorrect to K. d. Lang. You could not tell it to stop doing that.

I use SwiftKey now. Microsoft is getting more of my data.

AphoticDev,
@AphoticDev@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

Oh shit you’re right! I forgot all about Swype. I used that too, back in the day.

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