CONNECT WITH US
Apple

Apple

The iPhone has a 'gray list' of words and phrases that won't auto-complete

TechRadar - Apple logo

Published on

Add as a preferred source on Google
The iPhone has a 'gray list' of words and phrases that won't auto-complete

Try and type out phrases like "sleepy Joe", "dictator Trump", or "Tibetan independence" on your iPhone, and you'll notice that you don't get auto-complete suggestions for them, and you can't swipe-type them — evidence of a 'gray list' of terms that has been discovered hidden in iOS.

The so-called gray list was discovered by researcher Derek Kauffman and reported by Reuters, and verified by an independent cybersecurity engineer. It's thought that there are at least 100,000 words and phrases in the list.

Other entries on the gray list, as reported by The Guardian, include "NSA spies", "question your sexuality", and even "Australia is a very bad place". References to drug use also seem to be unavailable through auto-complete or swipe typing.

There's no issue with typing out any of these terms and including them in any kind of message — but the point is that iOS won't try and auto-complete them like it will with other words and phrases, or let you type them through swiping.

Apple is keeping its cards close to its chest: it didn't comment on the list directly in an email sent to Reuters, but did acknowledge that the iPhone keyboard was set up to avoid offering suggestions that might be inappropriate or offensive.

You may remember last year there was something of a kerfuffle over iPhones changing "Trump" to "racist" during dictation. It wasn't clear exactly what happened, but with any kind of AI-driven automation, these sorts of issues can arise.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation's David Greene told Reuters that while he could see the thinking behind a gray list for the iOS keyboard, "this is something users should be really well aware of and have some ability to customize".


Source link
Related Topics:Apple

Disclaimer

We strive to uphold the highest ethical standards in all of our reporting and coverage. We TheMorningPulse.fyi want to be transparent with our readers about any potential conflicts of interest that may arise in our work. It's possible that some of the investors we feature may have connections to other businesses, including competitors or companies we write about. However, we want to assure our readers that this will not have any impact on the integrity or impartiality of our reporting. We are committed to delivering accurate, unbiased news and information to our audience, and we will continue to uphold our ethics and principles in all of our work. Thank you for your trust and support.