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I've recently bought a Samsung Galaxy Pocket with Gingerbread (Android 2.3).

I expected Japanese not to be there as an input method, although Korean is there (why Korean and not Japanese and Chinese?), and anyway, I looked for apps that allowed me to type Japanese.

I found Google Japanese Input and Simeji. Both look wonderful... in the screenshots. I haven't tried any yet. The reason is that every time I try to turn them on, a warning appears that says (translated from italian):

Attention: this input method can gather all digited text, including password, credit card numbers and other personal data. Continue?

I didn't accept, but this means I cannot type Japanese. What is the exact meaning of this warning? I mean, other than the literal meaning that I can understand. Why should it take my credit card number, if and when I type it? Or my passwords? Or am I missing something?

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Basically, it's saying that the app could potentially steal your information, as it's a keyboard and therefore processes what you type. For instance, if you typed your password in and it was malicious, it could potentially record that (and everything else you type). Of course, you could trust Google wouldn't do that...Android is simply reminding you of the risk.

Further reading: The FAQ for the Hacker's Keyboard

The warning can be found in the Android source (see line ~2687).

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  • Is there any official document (like a FAQ or something similar) that I could consult about this? I couldn't find anything, except general FAQ or similar things.
    – Alenanno
    Commented Oct 2, 2012 at 9:00
  • Researching, I found a disclaimer in another app that said that the "collecting data warning" is standard on 3rd party apps on Android.
    – Alenanno
    Commented Oct 2, 2012 at 10:25
  • @Alenanno: see code.google.com/p/hackerskeyboard/wiki/…? and android.googlesource.com/platform/packages/apps/Settings/+/… line 2687.
    – li.davidm
    Commented Oct 2, 2012 at 15:38
  • Great thanks. Maybe you could add that to the answer so other people see it (in case comments get deleted in the future). :D
    – Alenanno
    Commented Oct 2, 2012 at 15:44

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