Grammarly

[mark100]

Hi

 

Our marketing department use Grammarly, but their privacy policy isn't great privacy-wise

 

• The site and the software collect the users’ Unique Device Identifier, geographic location from where you are operating your smartphone or PC, the language you are interacting with.
  
• Grammarly site and the software collect and receive the type hardware and the software you are using, the information obtained from the cookies.
  
• Also, if you logged into the Grammarly from your Facebook or Google+ account, they will collect your basic information from respective social media.
  
• More importantly, any content you write on Grammarly, you give Grammarly full permission and access to use it for improvement of algorithms underlying the software and the services.
  
• Grammarly keeps track and records all of your keystrokes and then analyses the content to detect and suggest the errors. The user themselves are solely responsible for the security and proper use of all user IDs, passwords or other security devices used in connection with the Site and/or the Services.
  
• Grammarly doesn’t guarantee 100% safety of the information transferred to them by the user. The users should acknowledge at their own risk.
  

 

I'm debating whether to allow them to continue using Grammarly but have a company policy stating they must turn it off if typing confidential information or just block its use.

 

Does anyone else allow this or have a policy inplace to make users aware of the risks?

[Edutech98]

Have you got the link to their privacy policy where it says this? I was shocked when I read this but on the privacy policy on their website it doesn't say most of these things? Or at least I can't see where it does!

 

It's this bit I'd like to particular read..

 

•More importantly, any content you write on Grammarly, you give Grammarly full permission and access to use it for improvement of algorithms underlying the software and the services.

•Grammarly keeps track and records all of your keystrokes and then analyses the content to detect and suggest the errors. The user themselves are solely responsible for the security and proper use of all user IDs, passwords or other security devices used in connection with the Site and/or the "

[mark100]

The key points were from Grammarly Review 2018: Is Grammarly Good & Safe to Use?

 

The first point is under - How does Grammarly use my Information?

But yes looking at the policy document again i can't see the last point, although they have got a faq on their website about keylogging - https://support.grammarly.com/hc/en-us/articles/360003816032-Is-Grammarly-a-keylogger- while it says they dont record every keystroke on your device, they do record keystrokes within their applications.

[Edutech98]

I'm wondering if the article is a bit of scare mongering or just out of date as it doesn't marry up to the companies actual privacy policy.

 

 

For keylogging - the FAQ says "accesses only the text you write using a Grammarly product, and only for the purposes of checking your text and providing corrections". To me this suggests they don't record the key logging, it is used only for the purpose of checking and providing corrections.

 

The collection of data from social media, their privacy policy says they ask for your consent before they do this and you can use the product without consenting.

 

I can't see any info about giving them full permission to use the data you write so presume they don't.

 

The 100% safety comment, this looks like it was talking about the transmission of data. It says they use tls to encrypt data in transit which I would be fine with for within a school.

 

There is nothing in their actual privacy policy that I can see that would make me want to block it for a school.

[Arthur]

There is nothing in their actual privacy policy that I can see that would make me want to block it for a school.

What about security vulnerabilities and the ability for the browser extension to read all data on every website you visit?

 

www.edugeek.net/forums/security/193049-grammarly-extension-vulnerability-gave-websites-access-users-account.html

[Edutech98]

You mean potential security vulnerabilities in the future?

 

For the browser extension to read all data, do you know if it does it client side? I'm presuming from their privacy policy no data is uploaded unless you explicitly do so. If that's the case I personally wouldn't have an issue with using it within a school.

[psydii]

I leave this here for no particular reason:

 

 

Worth reading some of the rest of the thread, particularly around what Windows/Office has built in these days..

 

(caution SwiftOnSecurity can be a potty mouth)

Edited June 18, 2018 by psydii

[mavhc]

Just asked about this today, seems like the major problem is it uploads whatever it's checking to their servers, the data isn't processed locally aiui

[Arthur]

I leave this here for no particular reason:

For some reason I can't view the tweet. Is it to do with the Microsoft ban?

 

Microsoft bans Slack and discourages AWS and Google Docs use internally

 

Microsoft has also banned Grammarly inside the company, which is a writing and grammar-checking app that can monitor every keystroke. "The Grammarly Office add-in and browser extensions should not be used on the Microsoft network because they are able to access Information Rights Management (IRM) protected content within emails and documents", according to the leaked list.

[mavhc]

For some reason I can't view the tweet. Is it to do with the Microsoft ban?

 

Looks like SwiftOnSecurity made their account private, nothing to do with MS afaik

[psydii]

Tay said some mean things about 4chan yesterday, and has gone private to let things blown over.