Your Android phone keyboard may be tracking your inputs - how to check (and 2 ways to stop it)

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Everything is tracking us. You can have a conversation with someone without even unlocking your phone, and the next day, that device will show you ads based on what you talked about. It's not just infuriating; it's kind of frightening.

What's worse, the companies behind all of this don't seem to really care about our privacy . What was once a given is now opt-out, and sometimes opting out is obfuscated in such a way that you have no idea it's even possible.

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Another thing that'll make you want to chuck your Android phone against a wall is that your keyboard is tracking you. Yes, your keyboard. Why? Autocorrect, typing suggestions, AI ... it all uses an internet connection to work, and because of that, it can track you. I, for one, cannot tolerate yet another thing tracking me. I'm done with it.

To that end, I decided to see if there was a way to prevent it from happening.

There are two options, but I truly trust only one of them.

Gboard is the default Android keyboard, and unless you take the time to make it private, it's tracking you. Yes, there is a way to stop some of this, but whether or not it's 100% is up in the air.

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What you can disable within the Gboard settings:

To disable these features (and you most certainly should), open the Settings app on your phone, type languages, tap Languages Gboard, tap Privacy, and tap the On/Off sliders for each option until they are in the Off position.

Yes, you can gain more privacy by disabling these features, but there's a much better way.

FUTO Keyboard is an open-source replacement keyboard that is every bit as good as Gboard. Even better, it looks and feels like Gboard, so your fingers won't have to worry about a learning curve. Install it, enable it, use it. It's that good.

The beauty of FUTO is that everything is handled on-device, so you don't have to worry about your data being sent to a third-party server for analysis, storage, and usage.

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