how bad are text expanders? (textpand) (lemmy.ml)

submitted 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) by birdcat@lemmy.ml to c/privacy@lemmy.ml

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ive been using expandroid, but sadly it stoped working for the stuff i most need it for.

now i found texpandapp(.)com. its really nice cuz it works my browser and note taking app.

most home calling can be stopped via dns blocking i guess (?), but it still has those questionable permissions:

view network connections 😒
use fingerprint hardware 👌
run foreground service with the type "dataSync" 🥱
run at startup 👌 -ask to ignore battery optimizations👌
have full network access 😳😳😳
prevent phone from sleeping🤔
Advertising ID Permission 🙄
run foreground service 👌
Google Play billing service 👌
Play Install Referrer API 🤔

how bad is all of that? keylogger-level bad?

(cannot block all internet access, bad phone and the vpn slot is occupied)

edit: turns out split tunnelling with "block all connections without vpn" does the job, nice.

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[-] Xanza@lemm.ee 14 points 2 months ago

These applications have to read everything you type to be able to see if the expansion trigger is being used. They are quite literally keyloggers.

They may be nice, but you're essentially letting the application read everything you type. Including passwords, social security numbers, anything...

Any type of network access here is unacceptable.

[-] birdcat@lemmy.ml 2 points 2 months ago

thanks, kinda thought so, gonna use netguard when using it, more important than the vpn

[-] Flagstaff@programming.dev 1 points 2 months ago

Rethink is better than NetGuard.

this post was submitted on 02 Mar 2025

4 points (66.7% liked)

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