iOS 14 introduces a feature that alerts users when apps access their clipboards, and tons of apps have been caught clipboard snooping.
LinkedIn is one of the iOS apps that has been reading user clipboards, and iPhone owners have complained that the app copies the contents of the clipboard with every keystroke.
LinkedIn is copying the contents of my clipboard every keystroke. IOS 14 allows users to see each paste notification. I’m on an IPad Pro and it’s copying from the clipboard of my MacBook Pro. Tik tok just got called out for this exact reason. pic.twitter.com/l6NIT8ixEF — Don urspace.io (@DonCubed) July 2, 2020
In a statement to ZDNet, LinkedIn said that the clipboard copying behavior is a bug and is not intended behavior. A VP at LinkedIn also said that the contents of the clipboard are not stored or transmitted. A fix for the issue is in the works, and should be available soon.
Hi @DonCubed. Appreciate you raising this. We've traced this to a code path that only does an equality check between the clipboard contents and the currently typed content in a text box. We don't store or transmit the clipboard contents. — Erran Berger (@eberger45) July 3, 2020
Other apps like TikTok, Twitter, Starbucks, Overstock, AccuWeather, and more have been caught reading user clipboards for no discernible reason. TikTok claimed that the clipboard access was used as fraud detection to suss out "repetitive, spammy behavior," and TikTok released an iOS update to remove it.
Ahead of the release of iOS 14, a pair of developers released a report letting users know that iPhone and iPad apps were accessing clipboard content behind the scenes. Apple's new iOS 14 feature appears to have been added in response, and there's no longer a way for apps to quietly read the clipboard without users being alerted to the behavior.
