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Phone vs Gboard

Privacy compared: the newest public version of each, scored by the same six rules. Gboard scores 90 and Phone 68, so Gboard is 22 points ahead.

68of 100
Phonecom.google.android.dialer

version 240.0.986973448

90of 100
Gboardcom.google.android.inputmethod.latin

version 18.4.1.985164140-beta-arm64-v8a ahead by 22

Who is ahead on what

The longer bar is the better one on every axis; a score is the mean of its six axes. The arithmetic behind each is on the app's own card.

The six axes

Each axis is one short rule applied to both apps, with the one thing that decided its number underneath.

Security level
Phone 100 No security problem found.
Gboard 100 No security problem found.
Tracking level
Phone 100 No tracking tools found; that does not prove there are none.
Gboard 100 No tracking tools found; that does not prove there are none.
Build hygiene Phone +15
Phone 79 The app passes 11 of 14 checks of how well it was built.
Gboard 64 The app passes 9 of 14 checks of how well it was built.
Packaging Gboard +1
Phone 99 Unpacked, the app is 95 MB; 620 KB of it is unused files.
Gboard 100 Unpacked, the base APK is 107 MB; 156 KB of it is unused files.
Access Gboard +91
Phone 1 Asks for 9 of 11 kinds of permission; 2 kinds of special access. It is 27 points below the bottom of the scale, so the total loses 4.5 more.
Gboard 92 Asks for 1 of 11 kinds of permission; no special access.
Background Gboard +30
Phone 54 Runs 3 kinds of background service and starts by itself after a restart.
Gboard 84 Runs no background service, but starts by itself after a restart.

TrackersPhone 0 · Gboard 0

The advertising, analytics and attribution SDKs recognised in each app. What only one of them carries is what sets it apart.

Only in Phone
none
In both
none
Only in Gboard
none

Dangerous permissionsPhone 14 · Gboard 1

The permissions Android asks the user about at run time: the camera, the microphone, the location, the contacts and the like. An app may need one for what it does; asking is not the same as using.

Only in Phone
ACCESS_BACKGROUND_LOCATIONACCESS_COARSE_LOCATIONACCESS_FINE_LOCATIONCAMERAREAD_CALL_LOGREAD_PHONE_NUMBERSREAD_PHONE_STATERECEIVE_SMSRECORD_AUDIOSEND_SMSWRITE_CALL_LOGWRITE_CONTACTSWRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE
In both
READ_CONTACTS
Only in Gboard
none

Where this comes from

Both are the apps' public cards: what anyone may know of an app, from its newest public version - one Google Play installed, and out in the world. Each card has the score's lines and the earlier versions: Phone, Gboard.