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GO Keyboard is spying on millions of users according to researchers
July 20, 2025
Security researchers are warning Android owners that your keyboard may be spying on you. Researchers from Adguard say that two variants of Go Keyboard are sending personal information to remote servers and executing unauthorized code on devices. Go Keyboard is developed by the ChineseGOMO Dev Team.
The two versions of the keyboard are listed in the Google Play Store as “GO Keyboard – Emoji keyboard, Swipe input, GIFs” and “GO Keyboard – Emoticon keyboard, Free Theme, GIF“. The keyboards each have between 100k and 500k downloads, and are rated at 4.5 and 4.4 stars respectively.
Adguarddecided to look into traffic associated with keyboards after the Touchpal keyboard was caughtdisplaying ads on HTC phonesearlier this year. Researchers determined that the GOMO team was collecting sensitive information including the email address associated with your Google Play Store account, network type, screen size, Android version, and build number. Additionally, the apps communicate with tracking networks and execute code from a remote server. Some of the downloaded plugins aremarkedasadwareby multipleanti-virus programs.
Collecting the email address associated with yourGoogle Playlogin and executing code on your device from a source outside of the Google Play Store are both violations of theMalicious Behaviors sectionof theDevelopers Policy Center. Here are the two policies its violating with these actions:
As worrying as the GOMO team’s behavior currently is, the real danger is if it decides to track everything you type. We use keyboards on our devices to type in sensitive information like passwords, bank account numbers, social media log-ins, and phone numbers. At the whim of the developers, all of this could be tracked and sent back to a remote server.
Adguard has passed its findings onto Google and is awaiting a response. It sums up its findings with this warning.
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