Microsoft SwiftKey Keyboard: Sharing your typing data FAQ

How your keyboard learns

Your Microsoft SwiftKey Keyboard uses machine learning to:

• Adapt automatically to your writing style

• Help you to type more efficiently

This means your keyboard remembers words that are important to you and how likely you are to use certain words together. It also adapts to the positions of your keystrokes as you type, helping it decide what you mean if you tap the area between two keys.

By default, nothing Microsoft SwiftKey learns about your typing leaves your device.

Backing up what Microsoft SwiftKey learns

If you choose to, you can sign into SwiftKey with your Microsoft or Google account. Microsoft SwiftKey will then periodically send fragments of data about the words you use to a Microsoft cloud service. The service stores the fragments in a format that can be synchronised with any other devices where you use SwiftKey.

Unless you choose to share your data with Microsoft, any data we store about your typing is private to you and accessible only to your keyboard. You may also ask us to delete your data at any time: you can do this via your Microsoft SwiftKey settings or https://data.swiftkey.com/

Capturing and Saving Tasks

When you sign in to SwiftKey with your Microsoft Account, you are able to manually save your tasks to the Microsoft tasks cloud services. This service allows you to access those tasks through a variety of applications including Microsoft To Do and Outlook.

How to help Microsoft improve

When you first use Microsoft SwiftKey, or in certain other situations, SwiftKey may ask if you would like to share typing data with Microsoft to help us improve our products.

Agreeing to this allows Microsoft to collect two different sorts of data about your typing:

• Your keyboard may occasionally capture ‘snippets’ of your typing. This includes short phrases, plus data about the keypresses you made to type the words, and whether you deleted or changed anything. These snippets are captured anonymously and you do not need to be signed in to share them.

• If you are signed in, your keyboard sends fragments of data about words you use and how likely you are to type them together to a Microsoft cloud backup service. When you agree to share your typing data, these fragments will also be shared with a separate Microsoft product improvement service. As part of this process, your shared data fragments will be anonymized and any personal or unusual words will be removed.

You are under no obligation to share this data, and if you agree to do so, you can change your mind at any time.

To opt in or out of sharing:

• Tap ‘Privacy’ in your Microsoft SwiftKey settings

• Toggle the ‘Help Microsoft to improve’ slider