I was taking a look at the Naomi Wu situation (A Chinese DIY tech youtuber who went missing after being watched by the government) and in one part they mentioned that she was concerned about her privacy, so started using Signal, but had a default chinese keyboard that had a keylogger and the police had looked into what she was talking on there.

I’m not sure if it was a mobile only thing, but it was mentioned that the keyboard app was used in like 70% por chinese smarthphones.

Now, I use AnySoftKey and refuse to use default keyboard apps, but how far can we reach on the keyboard security thing? Is typing on a computer or using a physical keyboard on a mobile device 100% safe? I think the keyboard issue is often overlooked and would like to know what recommendations your have? Or what should be known more?

  • @jetAEnglish
    8•10 months ago

    All that comes down to your threat model.

    If you’re very concerned about sophisticated actors getting effectively keyloggers on you. Install a privacy focused operating system on your phone, like graphene os (fixed spelling). Don’t change the keyboard. Keep the default secure keyboard.

    For your physical computer, uses very standard keyboard. Nothing fancy nothing that’s reprogrammable. Most people have USB keyboards nowadays, make sure you plug your keyboard and mouse into their own USB controller, so nothing can snoop those keystrokes. Don’t use a KVM, don’t use a fancy monitor that basically got a computer inside of it.

    If you think you might be a target, buy your keyboard with cash, in fact by all of your electronics of cash, don’t order anything for delivery. They could get tampered with on the way to you.