Buyer beware
If you’re a gamer on a tight budget, buying a cheap, mechanical keyboard from a lesser-known Chinese company like ManisTek might be tempting, especially since their offerings are usually a couple of thousand pesos cheaper than established brands like Razer and Logitech. But there’s always a catch when buying cheap gadgets from China, and for buyers of ManisTek’s GK 2 mechanical gaming keyboard, it’s a built-in keylogger.
Several users have reported that the firm’s affordable mechanical keyboard, which retails for around Php 2.5K, has been caught sending data to an Alibaba server. Specifically, the configuration software of the keyboard has been sending user data that logs how many times a certain key has been pressed.
The data is being sent in plaintext, and though it’s being sent to an Alibaba server, it’s not being sent to the online shopping platform themselves. Alibaba rents out server space much like Amazon, so there’s no telling who the data is going to.
While the keylogger isn’t actually logging in specific key presses of users, it’s still a pretty violation of security and privacy laws since MantisTek has not explicitly asked for permission to collect data from users.
