Gboard is a privacy nightmare; here's what you can do about it
Android Police 2026-07-10 17:30:10
Context: The Gboard keyboard app, developed by Google, has been found to be a significant privacy concern for Android users. With over 10 billion downloads on the Google Play Store, Gboard is widely used, but it collects a substantial amount of sensitive user data, including keystrokes, typing patterns, and app usage statistics. This data can be linked to users' real identities, making it a potential threat to their privacy.
Key Facts
- Gboard has over 10 billion downloads on the Google Play Store, making it one of the most widely used keyboard apps for Android devices.
- The app collects sensitive user data, including keystrokes, typing patterns, app usage statistics, and the length of typed words, which can be linked to users' real identities.
- Gboard's networking permission is granted by default, allowing it to connect to remote servers and send user data back to Google, and this permission cannot be disabled by users.
- Researchers have found that Gboard's training data, which is sent back to Google, can be used to recover the raw keystrokes typed by users, potentially compromising their sensitive information.
- A free and open-source alternative keyboard app, HeliBoard, is available, which does not require networking permissions and works completely offline, providing a more private typing experience for users.