How Safe Is Grammarly?

Grammarly is an efficient proofreading program that can check and correct your document’s grammatical, spelling, and punctuation errors. Signing up for a Grammarly Premium plan will unlock even more helpful features like tone adjustment and clarity-focused sentence rewrites.

However, as with other online platforms that are given a chance to be under the spotlight, it is no surprise why Grammarly is also under scrutiny for safety. After all, it is monitoring a lot of the writing that you do online.

Is Grammarly Safe?

Grammarly's safety depends on how you define safety. Hence, to answer in more detail, we will divide our response into four different aspects of safety, namely:

• reliability when proofreading your article,

• safety when storing your files,

• how it interacts with your computer,

• and of course, safety in accessing your information

In Proofreading Your Articles

Let us start with how reliable Grammarly is in proofreading your written work since it is the program’s main function. Can you really entrust your paper to Grammarly and expect a flawless result?

Yes and no. Yes, Grammarly is one of the most reliable proofreading tools online. The program is very sophisticated and able to spot most errors and issues with excellent corrections and feedback. However, it is still not as reliable as manual proofreading.

There would still be lapses in terms of accuracy. For instance, it will not be able to catch any inconsistencies in the author’s points. It can't fact-check on your behalf or distinguish jargon or intended spelling choices. Hence, the safest option to ensure a flawless article is to write with Grammarly assistance and still manually proofread it afterward.

In Storing Your Documents

The next aspect that needs addressing is your documents' safety from being wiped out without your knowledge.

According to Grammarly itself, any document you have saved in the application will be stored there until you choose to delete it. You can also access your files across various devices as long as you log into your Grammarly account.

There’s a catch, though. Grammarly won’t save anything that you have written or saved outside the main application, even if you have used Grammarly to proofread and edit that document.

It will probably retain certain information related to the errors identified and changes made on the text, such as how many punctuation errors Grammarly corrected in your article, for the purposes of recording and analysis. As for the document itself, it is simply read by the program and disassociated with your account right after.

In Affecting Your Computer’s Performance

Let us now move on to the third aspect, whether it is safe to use Grammarly with other platforms, computer programs, and the like. In our experience, we have found Grammarly to be generally safe to use with other online platforms. We have noticed that it can sometimes affect scripts in WordPress Editor, though. It is a rare glitch that we’re sure Grammarly is fixing already.

According to an article in LifeHacker, one user also found Grammarly to be a resource hog that can impact your PC or laptop's speed or performance. This will depend on the specs of your device, of course. Please take note that it won’t permanently harm your device, as well. It will return to its optimum performance once you’re done using the proofreader.

In Accessing Your Information

Lastly, allow us to address one of the major safety concerns regarding the use of Grammarlyーhow the program handles your information.

As with any other online tool or platform, it is understandable that Grammarly will record some of your personal data like the email address and password that you use to log in. It also stores cookies that probably won’t sit well with those deeply concerned about their privacy.

However, please keep in mind that all websites utilize cookies. The number that Grammarly uses is nothing compared to the amount that Google has or social media platforms like Facebook.

Finally, we appreciate that Grammarly recognizes the importance of our privacy and protection. That’s why they are compliant with General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). These regulations ensure that online platforms have a legal basis in collecting their users’ personal data and that users have the option to opt out of them should they wish to.

The Verdict

Honestly, we never had any problems with Grammarly in terms of safety. Of all the years we have been using it, we have never felt exposed or at risk of cyber threats.

While we cannot guarantee that it will always stay that way in the future, we believe that their team is doing their best to ensure their users' safety and the information we have entrusted to them.

Those who are interested in learning more about the program beyond the safety aspects that we are going to discuss in this article can check out the Grammarly pricing page for more information.

There are also other options to consider when it comes to writing assistants. Competitors like Chegg have started to offer similar services. It can be helpful to compare the different options available to you and your team. Check out this helpful comparison of Chegg Writing vs. Grammarly.