The Keyboard

GetMyDetails reimagines the keyboard. Why did we do this, why the scary warnings from Apple and what are the risks?

The GetMyDetails keyboard gives you all the important information you need for filling in web pages, PDFs, app fields, emails, everything really, but without you needing to remember it, find it, or type it out. The traditional one-key-per-symbol is replaced with a one-key-per-field approach. Want your son's email address? No problem. Click their person, then press their email address. Want your whole home address in a variety of formats? Old home address? Date you moved in? Passport number?

Why?

GetMyDetails was invented in the depths of COVID: the endless forms containing the same duplicated information over and over, sometimes the forms even asking you to enter it in twice in case you made a mistake. All on top of home schooling, less efficient ways of working and more jobs. Just when you wanted more free time, you suddenly had less. Between API, departure information, arrival information, health certificates, visas, I reckon I entered my passport number in at least 5 times and multiplied across the family it was taking hours. There had to be a better way.

When I invented GetMyDetails, I wanted a way you could get nearly all the benefits without anybody else having to change anything. It is hard to get big organisations to change, so I wanted to put the control  in our hands as fast as possible. Like many good ideas, it all began with a "what if?". What if I could populate the keyboard with all the key information you needed, then no matter whether you were in an app, a web form or editing a PDF document or replying to an email, the data would just be there and get inserted where needed, our users would not need anybody else to do anything. And so it was. OK, it took longer than I wanted but we are here now. You can get nearly all the benefits of GetMyDetails today. I use it almost every day for myself or the kids.

So, the keyboard lets you get most of the benefits of GetMyDetails without anyone else doing anything. Call it a level zero integration.

Why the scary warnings?

When you use the keyboard, you need to enable Full Access. Apple will display scary warnings when you do this. The messages are going to say the information that you type in could be stolen, and that is true, in theory it could. But firstly our keyboard doesn't let you type in any new information, we are only displaying the information you have already given us, so nothing to worry about! Why do we need the access then? Apple has an all-or-nothing approach to keyboards writing information. We use the write access because we store the settings back in the main app and this is the only way. We have also implemented some very cool features with our sharing extension, and this requires us to store information you share with us. But please be assured, we do not store this information on our servers, it is just on your phone.

What are the risks?

You probably have this information on your phone now, stored in your photos, in notes or maybe just in email, there is a strong possibility it is duplicated across many different services, all over the world. When we store the information, it is encrypted, and stored on your phone. We don't store it anywhere else. So the risks are much lower than what you may be doing already.