The only app I can’t live without. Except for gboard, all of my applications are Foss. There is no competition for gboard’s swipe typing, not to mention its many capabilities like as searching for gifs, stickers, being able to paste copied images, translating, and so on. I’d like to know how I can use gboard while maintaining my privacy. According to what I’ve heard, it sends all typing data to Google’s server. If you ask me, that’s a massive no-no. Do you have any suggestions?
I am assuming you are on stock Android and not a custom ROM where you can manage network permissions. What you can do is you can use NetGuard (the FOSS version not the Google Play version) and cut off internet access to not only GBoard but also other apps that do not need it
I believe TrackerControl is based on NetGuard but offers some tracker blocking, so you can still allow internet access for functionality like GIFs and sticker searches. Although I’m not sure if the specific servers for Gboard have been identified.
You could also use NetGuard with a custom DNS like AdGuard or NextDNS and add blocklists. I use AdGuard and it works great for me.