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14

disable learned words functionality

asked 2018-05-08 12:19:46 +0300

baptx gravatar image

updated 2018-05-08 22:45:08 +0300

It is surprising that no one already created this issue, I noticed this problem a few years ago but did not took time to create an issue. Users should be able to disable learned words, this is a real privacy problem because the operating system can record a lot of words we are typing.

The option "clear learned words" is not enough, we should be able to disable this functionality completely, it is similar to the private mode of the web browser, which will disable the history / cookies / cache functionality completely. Recording learned words by default without asking user consent can be seen as a security vulnerability similar to a keylogger. It is important to fix this issue, especially for an alternative mobile operating system that is focused on security and privacy.

At the moment, I did not try hacking to fix this problem manually. Temporary solutions are welcome until there is an official fix.

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@Sthocs thanks, chmod -w /home/nemo/.local/share/xt9/xt9.dlm works, after that I had to restart the device to make it work. To make sure the permissions are never changed, we should also execute chattr +i /home/nemo/.local/share/xt9/xt9.dlm as root because if one day we click on "clean learned words", it will reset the write permission. If people delete the file, it will not be enough because it will be recreated on device startup. You can make your solution as an answer so people can see the actual workarounds. If someone knows if we can disable the learned words functionality as a systemd service command, it would be even better.

baptx ( 2018-05-09 13:26:37 +0300 )edit

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7

answered 2018-05-09 11:26:18 +0300

Sthocs gravatar image

updated 2018-05-10 20:43:27 +0300

baptx gravatar image

Learned words are stored in /home/nemo/.local/share/xt9/xt9.dlm. Maybe making it read-only would disable this functionality? -> confirmed by @baptx that it works (see his comment above):

chmod -w /home/nemo/.local/share/xt9/xt9.dlm

To stop learning words, you will also have to restart your device after executing the command above.

Optional step: To make sure the permissions are never changed, we should also execute chattr +i /home/nemo/.local/share/xt9/xt9.dlm as root because if one day we click on "clean learned words", it will reset the write permission.

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3

answered 2018-05-08 13:04:07 +0300

Spam Hunter gravatar image

If you searched, you may have found https://openrepos.net/content/schturman/patch-hide-word-suggestions by schturman on Openrepos

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5

But how does this patch by @Schturman work, does it only hide the suggestions or does it really stop SFOS from learning new words?

juiceme ( 2018-05-08 14:44:40 +0300 )edit
5

Only hide...

Schturman ( 2018-05-08 15:02:03 +0300 )edit
1

I searched "disable learned words sailfishos" on DuckDuckGo and JollaTogether but did not get any relevant results. This patch is interesting but it would be good to disable learned words storage on the device. I hope that if a lot of people will upvote this issue, Jolla will make it possible to disable learned words in an official update.

baptx ( 2018-05-08 22:19:58 +0300 )edit

I'd be happy with a guaranteed way to teach the dictionary words.

rfa ( 2018-05-09 10:00:43 +0300 )edit
2

If you read the request entirely, you may have understand that @baptx is concerned about the OS recording what is typed by the user. Simply hiding suggestions won't prevent that at all...

And in term of functionalities, this patch does the same thing than uninstalling the Predictive text app (which is now easy since Sailfish X). That's not what is asked. Users can still want a predictive text which wouldn't record what's typed.

Sthocs ( 2018-05-09 11:22:49 +0300 )edit
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Asked: 2018-05-08 12:19:46 +0300

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Last updated: May 10 '18