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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[-] Flagstaff@programming.dev 4 points 2 months ago

Why do you use a separate Android app with all of those hostile permissions instead of the built-in personal dictionary and its shortcuts? I have thousands of shorthand lines in Android's personal dictionary, like wdyl = what do you like (type the first part and the second part appears in the autocorrect pane for you to touch if you want).

[-] birdcat@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 months ago

i dont seem to have that function. anyway cannot rly see the harm with that app and the vpn block solution.

[-] Flagstaff@programming.dev 4 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Your Android device doesn't have a personal dictionary section in the Language & Input page? What phone do you have? Yeah, keeping it offline is probably fine, but I'm just surprised since this has been a thing for at least 7 Android versions now, as far as I know.

By the way, HeliBoard (an offline fork of the now-defunct OpenBoard) seems to have its own private, built-in personal dictionary; I migrated to that since finding out.

this post was submitted on 02 Mar 2025

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