Swype makes almost 4000 location requests every day • Hacker News Board

Re: Swype makes almost 4000 location requests every day

#71

Post by taiki » Mon, May 05, 2014, 2:34 PM UTC

jnbiche wrote: post #25

userbinator wrote: post #17

The official response is that location data is used for "regional dialects"... makes sense, but is IP geolocation not close enough? The screenshot there doesn't make it clear but is this coarse or fine location data? My keyboard, no matter how smart, shouldn't need to know where exactly it is on Earth to within a few meters. Within a state or town, fair enough.

I think this is poor user UI. I mean, in this day in age when so many people travel through different countries weekly on pleasure or business, their keyboard layout changes accordingly? That doesn't make much sense.

I grew up in the Airforce and spent a lot of years all over. I now live in New York City.

If my keyboard thinks, just because I'm in New York City, that I meant to say, "Stand on line" instead of "Stand in line" it's insane.

Re: Swype makes almost 4000 location requests every day

#72

Post by orbitingpluto » Mon, May 05, 2014, 2:41 PM UTC

I'm showing 0 kb for Swype for mobile data usage, and I believe that was before I put it into full restricted mode for cellular. It could be phoning home later.

Swype can toggle enabling/disabling cellular data, contribute usage data & "social integration".

Also you shouldn't set up "backup and sync".

My point is it looks like there is some setting where it is not phoning home all the time.

Re: Swype makes almost 4000 location requests every day

#73

Post by martincmartin » Mon, May 05, 2014, 2:42 PM UTC

talles wrote: post #54

Pardon my unawareness, but why would Swype get my location again?

It's explained in the post. To figure out the regional dialect.

Re: Swype makes almost 4000 location requests every day

#74

Post by dublinben » Mon, May 05, 2014, 2:44 PM UTC

jchung wrote: post #65

sikhnerd wrote: post #7

Every time I see something like this come up, it really makes me wonder how many other apps out there are doing the same thing and getting away with it. Unless you root your phone and use something like the mentioned android firewall, or go whole-hog and install Cyanogenmod, what chance do you have to guard against this? I assume ios users are likely in the same boat, but with even less chance of recourse.

I feel the same way. After the whole flashlight app data harvesting debacle on Android, I haven't been able to find a flashlight app for my phone that doesn't give me privacy goosebumps.

Open Flashlight in F-Droid is open source and GPL. You can verify that it respects your privacy.

Re: Swype makes almost 4000 location requests every day

#75

Post by pyk » Mon, May 05, 2014, 2:44 PM UTC

userbinator wrote: post #17

The official response is that location data is used for "regional dialects"... makes sense, but is IP geolocation not close enough? The screenshot there doesn't make it clear but is this coarse or fine location data? My keyboard, no matter how smart, shouldn't need to know where exactly it is on Earth to within a few meters. Within a state or town, fair enough.

IP geolocation on my phone says that I am in Kansas (as a Sprint user), but I am definitely in Atlanta.

Not that I think fine location data is necessary (I don't, and would like clear permissions options), but not sure IP geolocation is a user-friendly substitute if needed.

Re: Swype makes almost 4000 location requests every day

#76

Post by madeofpalk » Mon, May 05, 2014, 2:45 PM UTC

Zigurd wrote: post #68

Karunamon wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or, rather, it could be because the feature was unfinished and tended to crash applications when they don't get the stuff that's called for (and the user authorized) on the permission manifest. http://pocketnow.com/2013/12/17/app-ops Something something malice stupidity. But no, let's bring out the torches and pitchforks...

This is about the easiest change for developers to accommodate. All they need to do is handle one exception. Most of the permission bloat on Android comes from ad network libraries that do a crappy job of behavioral targeting anyway. Turning off that kind of obnoxious data exfiltration isn't going to hurt anyone, least of all the user. I don't recall there being an outcry over how painful it was to use permission rev…

> This is about the easiest change for developers to accommodate. All they need to do is handle one exception.

But apps didnt have to handle that exception before.

If permissions are rejected, it should just return empty data.

Re: Swype makes almost 4000 location requests every day

#77

Post by dublinben » Mon, May 05, 2014, 2:45 PM UTC

jgalt212 wrote: post #44

I have a Droid Moto X. Swype was pre-installed, so I can't even uninstall it without rooting my phone. I got an Android phone b/c I didn't want to be one of Steve's sheep, but given some of the comments here it's probably safer to be in his flock than not.

Perhaps you are thinking of Swiftkey. Swype is definitely not preinstalled on Moto X phones.

Re: Swype makes almost 4000 location requests every day

#78

Post by drdaeman » Mon, May 05, 2014, 2:48 PM UTC

e40 wrote: post #61

sikhnerd wrote: post #7

Every time I see something like this come up, it really makes me wonder how many other apps out there are doing the same thing and getting away with it. Unless you root your phone and use something like the mentioned android firewall, or go whole-hog and install Cyanogenmod, what chance do you have to guard against this? I assume ios users are likely in the same boat, but with even less chance of recourse.

If you're on Android and rooted, use App Ops X. It allows the revocation of individual permissions, like location, wake lock (a battery waster), and others. Every time I install a new app, I look at Ap Ops X and see what perms it's using and revoke the ones I don't want it to have.

I'd recommend XPrivacy. It's much more granular (function level ACLs with some argument-level filtering), so one could allow connecting only to specific hosts or opening only allowed file paths on external storage.

Re: Swype makes almost 4000 location requests every day

#79

Post by afro88 » Mon, May 05, 2014, 2:50 PM UTC

sikhnerd wrote: post #7

Every time I see something like this come up, it really makes me wonder how many other apps out there are doing the same thing and getting away with it. Unless you root your phone and use something like the mentioned android firewall, or go whole-hog and install Cyanogenmod, what chance do you have to guard against this? I assume ios users are likely in the same boat, but with even less chance of recourse.

iOS has per app location privacy settings. Just switch location services off for any apps you're suspicious of.

It also prompts for GPS permission on first use in an app, so it will never send your location without you having allowed it to do so in the first place.

Re: Swype makes almost 4000 location requests every day

#80

Post by drdaeman » Mon, May 05, 2014, 2:54 PM UTC

atoponce wrote: post #48

The Google keyboard supports swiping now, and if running 4.3, you can have the Dvorak layout as well.

Offtopic: is Dvorak layout really useful on small touchscreens?

I use it on hardware keyboard, where each finger has its place - and it's great. But all my attempts to use it on phone screen only led to increase of typos, because frequently used letters are too near to each other.