Default keyboard setting 'sends keyboard touch info'

[Rocket_Girl]

Just discovered something I wish I had known sooner. Had to set things up after a hard reset (different thread, groan...). Under Settings...Keyboard...typing settings... There is a tick box to "send keyboard touch information to improve typing and more". This box is ticked (yes) by default.

Two responses to this discovery:
1) I unticked. I have heretofore been sending essentially everything I type (email, text, wpcentral postings) to Microsoft? Samsung? Probably not at&t but unclear

2) Irony is not lost on me: even as we bide our time with keyboard issues (vanishing keyboard, terrible accuracy)...this has all been recorded and sent as feedback 'to improve keyboard accuracy and more.'

I do hope a fix is forthcoming..have contributed far more feedback toward the cause than I ever intended or knew about!!

Random: there is a very GOOD section under "Learn More" (just below the offending tick-box) that has a very GOOD section titled More Info about your windows phone. Should be a sticky here in its entirety...better than any other documentation I have come across...

I am no longer sending off a record of every keystroke!

 

[Pronk]

I found this recently too, and shut it off straight away. I'm not doing free beta testing for MS at the expense of my battery!

 

[Rocket_Girl]

Or data plan...or privacy!!!

 

[thed]

I gladly send the keyboard touch info. MS states that they use it to improve typing. It seems like that system is working since they are releasing a keyboard accuracy update. If it at least brings the keyboard back up to the accuracy it had pre-Mango then I'm all for it.

They also clearly state that it's not a privacy issue:

"To protect your privacy, we do not collect keyboard touch information when the phone displays a login screen or password field. We also take measures that are designed to prevent us from collecting email addresses and numeric sequences such as phone numbers, credit card numbers, and so on. Because we aggregate text from many users and transform it into counts of character and word sequences, it is impossible to identify who typed any particular word. Furthermore, because the data is sent with a random ID, the data cannot be traced back to you."

Source:
Recommended Settings | Cellular Data Usage | Mobile Configuration Windows Phone 7

I understand if you have concerns about data usage, as it's not really clear if it always uses cell data or if it obeys the option you have selected in the 'feedback' settings.

 

[jeremyshaw]

You were given the option during the initial setup of the phone, iirc. May not of been phrased with the word "keyboard," in it, but it did state: sending info to MS, Y/N?

EDIT: I'm wrong, see below.

 

[jrdatrackstar1223]

Too bad carriers have passed on the keyboard fix....the one thing I really needed.

Feeling like I am back on Android with fragmentation all over again.

I wish iPhones could get 3g on TMobile...

 

[thed]

Too bad carriers have passed on the keyboard fix....the one thing I really needed.

Feeling like I am back on Android with fragmentation all over again.

I wish iPhones could get 3g on TMobile...

Yes, I forgot to include the phrase "...to the carriers who request it." Ugh.

 

[Rocket_Girl]

You were given the option during the initial setup of the phone, iirc. May not of been phrased with the word "keyboard," in it, but it did state: sending info to MS, Y/N?

Yes, and I set that to NO. Keyboard setting was still active independent from that, in a rather different and hard-to-stumble-across place.

I also want to support the greater goal of informing the keyboard fix, but I have DONE that now for quite some time and fix is probably coming, yet hard to know when we might see it.

Regarding privacy, they attempt to avoid passwords, email addresses, etc... though they may get them if they appear on places other than those that are masked (in some way). Guess I am just a bit twitchy at the idea that some data repository in the sky is getting and keeping everything I type. In reality, nobody cares one bit about what I might say, and nobody is looking at any individual's content over time - I know these things. Just would rather not share by default. I've shared enough to contribute a few bytes to a possible fix.