Is Grammarly Safe and Legit?
Grammarly is the world’s most popular grammar-checking tool. It has over 30 million users worldwide and is the best-reviewed tool of its kind. Grammarly’s AI-powered writing assistant ensures bold, clear, and error-free writing.
Many users, however, questioned the tool’s safety, pointing out that any tool that analyzes their users’ writing can be potentially dangerous within the context of collecting user data.
This question is important not only for Grammarly but also for other grammar-checking tools on the internet. So, is Grammarly secure and legitimate?
Grammarly isn’t completely risk-free, however. Grammatically cannot control the information sent from your computer to their servers, as they are clearly stated in their terms and policies of use. As a result, you run the risk of accidentally disclosing personal information to Grammarly. It’s possible, however, to control this.
Sharing sensitive, personal information with a tool would be foolish, to say the least. Even though the data is encrypted, it wouldn’t be the first time that someone illegally gained access to a popular website’s servers, allowing them to search through every user’s information.
This is the exact issue we’ll be discussing in this article: why and how Grammarly is safe and unsafe, how to maximize that safety, whether is Grammarly safe and legit, does it spy on its users, steals your data, can it read your passwords, copy your work, is it confidential, and, most importantly, can Grammarly be trusted?
Is Grammarly Safe And Legit?
As I mentioned at the outset, Grammarly is generally secure, but it is not impenetrable. To accuse Grammarly of actively gathering personal data would be unfair; instead, it would be more accurate to say that Grammarly is guilty of passively doing so. Let me go into greater depth on this.
“Grammarly is committed to protecting the security of your information and takes reasonable precautions to protect it,” states Grammarly’s user policy, which can be found on their website.
This means that Grammarly receives all of the text that you type into your computer, whether or not you want it to be corrected.
There are several reasons why this is the case: When Grammarly is installed on your computer, it corrects all of your writing. When you don’t want it to – which is the case – the software analyzes all of your writing.
A lot of people really love Grammarly because of this, and Grammarly cannot do anything about this because it’s how it works.
Grammarly is a safe option when it comes to system security. For apps like Grammarly, security is a major factor in their success, and it’s a promise they must keep maintaining their high level of popularity in today’s world. Privacy, on the other hand, is a different story.
Their servers (and it’s not anonymous) receive every word you write, even the ones you delete. Hackers and insider leaks can access any data on the internet.
Of course, we all hope this never happens, and if it does, Grammarly’s security is completely unimportant – but we don’t have that luxury.
When working with sensitive information, it is best to disable this extension on the web. That means it’s best to turn it off while doing bank-related work, writing sensitive information, and so on.
There are no worries about security or plagiarism with Grammarly’s claim that “Your writing is securely backed up and encrypted”.
Grammarly’s enterprise-level encryption is included in the Grammarly business version. In fact, it’s GDPR and CCPA compliant.”
It doesn’t matter if the tennis match you and Grammarly are playing is played behind closed doors (with your data and the content of your writing as the ball) because anyone (hackers) could open the door or Grammarly couldn’t play the ball out in the field (leak the information).
Is Grammarly Safe To Download? (The App)
It’s safe to say that Grammarly downloads for Windows and Microsoft Office are as secure as a download can be.
Neither Grammarly nor any other malware has ever been identified as a threat or infected with a virus (trojan horse, etc.).
For Grammarly, earning the trust of its users and protecting their data and user content is a top priority.
Use this app if you use Microsoft Word or Outlook to see if it helps you catch more writing errors.
Or, if you prefer, you can edit on your desktop using the distraction-free Windows app (which is also free).
Does Grammarly Spy On Its Users?
No, Grammarly isn’t spying, and it shouldn’t be defined as such. Is Grammarly a data-gatherer? Sure. Was this done for any other purpose than correcting your writing by Grammarly? I do not think so.
The problem isn’t that Grammarly has access to your data. Everyone knows they must do this in order to properly analyze and revise their writing. It’s all about how long they plan to keep it around.
Using Grammarly to upload your data, correct your writing, send your corrected writing back to you and delete the data would not be a problem for anyone. However, this is not what the tool is designed to do.
Despite Grammarly’s claim that it has no set policy on how long it will keep your data, they’ve been transparent about it. It is only by deleting your Grammarly account that you will be able to remove the data Grammarly has collected about you. Grammarly has issued an official statement on the matter.
“By deleting your Grammarly account as described above, you can remove your Personal Data at any time. As long as it is reasonably necessary for our legitimate business interests, including the detection and prevention of fraud, and to meet our legal obligations such as tax obligations, judicial reporting, and auditing,”
Does Grammarly Steal Users Data?
Is Grammarly a keylogger, or is this a slightly different question? A keylogger isn’t what Grammarly is at all.
Regardless of the program or device you use, keylogging programs record every keystroke you make on the keyboard.
These programs can be hacked by cybercriminals, who can then track your typing and access your personal information (including your passwords).
Only the texts you write while using Grammarly are accessed by the service, which does not record every keystroke made on your device.
Even if Grammarly is turned on, they cannot see passwords, credit card information, etc., even if these fields are marked as ‘sensitive’ in the internal code of the site itself. This means that even if Grammarly has been activated, they are unable to see these fields.
Can Grammarly Copy Your Work?
Grammarly has a problem with its own internal security, not something the user can change. Grammarly can’t copy your work and won’t be mistaken for plagiarism because it won’t be indexed by search engines.
But if someone happens to gain access to their servers, that person will be able to steal your work. Grammarly has been working hard to improve its security for this specific reason, as everything is dependent on Grammarly’s internal security rather than you sharing information with them.
It is Grammarly’s policy not to share, sell, or rent your personal information. However, Grammarly does share information in some cases (many of which are justifiably considered to be breaches of trust).
For the time being, Grammarly may be keeping your data safe in order to increase its net worth before a merger, bankruptcy, or acquisition. If this is the case, Grammarly is free to do whatever data mining they want.
As a result, Grammarly is probably not going to steal your personal information without a good reason, but it’s not impossible for them to.
Are Grammarly Browser Extensions Safe to Use?
You should only use browser extensions that you are certain are completely safe to use. Furthermore, you should avoid using non-legitimate extensions because they can steal your personal information and sell it on forums and black markets.
Now, it has emerged that a number of popular Chrome extensions were harvesting user data — including credit card and GPS locations as well as passwords and tax returns — without permission.
Worse still, the information was gathered and sold to anyone who would pay.
As a result of this, malicious extensions on users’ browsers have been removed and disabled by Google and Mozilla, and they can sometimes be removed remotely. Grammarly has never been included in any of their “offenders” lists, which is unusual.
Is Grammarly a Keylogger?
Grammarly claims it is not a keylogger and only has access to the text you write in non-sensitive fields when you enable its browser extension or mobile keyboard to provide writing suggestions. However, there is no authentic answer to this question.
A server-based algorithm can only provide suggestions if it can read your text in a non-sensitive area (e.g., an online editor or an email), which makes sense.
Grammarly claims it can’t access text in sensitive fields like credit card forms, password and email fields, or other fields containing sensitive information.
Can Grammarly Be Trusted?
To be fair, we must acknowledge two very important facts that were not mentioned in this article.
As a start, Grammarly was very upfront about this.
To explain privacy in detail, they have written thousands of words in rich detail. In no way did Grammarly try to fool or con their users into trusting them while secretly sharing their personal data.
That they are transparent about how they collect data, what data they collect and what they ignore, where the data is stored, and who can access it. You can delete your Grammarly account at any time.
This, I believe, is Grammarly’s first point of reliability. Having distrust means suspecting someone of being dishonest.
Grammarly has never done this and has always been upfront about the risks associated with their software. No less dangerous, no less ethical, no less unsecured is their tool. Grammarly at least acknowledges it.
That Grammarly hasn’t yet caused problems for its users is the second reason to trust them. On which occasions do you (the user) grant Grammarly permission to use and share your data? Your information will only be used for internal purposes, such as improving their service, and you will be unaware that it has been collected in this way.
Grammarly has over 30 million users who would abandon it if it shared personal data.
Doubtless, Grammarly has acknowledged and defined this to its users.
In other words, while it may raise a few eyebrows and exclamation points in the minds of its users, it does so in an open and honest way.
Wrap Up
I can confidently say that Grammarly is safe and secure because I haven’t had any issues with it in over eight years of using it. In the eyes of well-known and reputable blogs and companies, it has an excellent reputation.
Over the past 12 years, the company has grown to 30 million active users. Compliant with a slew of federal and state privacy frameworks and regulations.
So, based on the information I’ve gathered and my own personal experiences, I’m confident in my assessment of Grammarly’s security.
Also, if you write frequently, I strongly recommend Grammarly to you, as it can help you produce high-quality content and improve your writing skills.
Hopefully, you’ve now been able to put your fears to rest. Please let us know if you have any further questions or concerns about Grammarly. Please use the comment section to tell us what you think.
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