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iOS14 reveals that TikTok may snoop clipboard contents every few keystrokes

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Re: iOS14 reveals that TikTok may snoop clipboard contents every few keystrokes

#91

Post by markdog12 »

kstrauser wrote: post #54

iOS already prompts for other things like "app Foo would like to know your location: Never, Only when open, Always". Users are use to this. I'd love a popup like: "TikTok wants to see what you've copied into your clipboard: Never, Once, Always, Uninstall that spyware". Then I could make informed decisions, like sure, my package tracker can see if there's a FedEx URL in my clipboard. I'm OK with that. There's literall…

Yeah, not just "what you've copied into your clipboard", but "Careful! Sometimes you have important confidential data in your clipboard, such as passwords!"

Re: iOS14 reveals that TikTok may snoop clipboard contents every few keystrokes

#92

Post by _jal »

The clipboard belongs to the user. It is quite obvious how clipboard-snooping could disclose sensitive information, and as far as writing to it, I should be able to expect the thing I copied last to be there when I hit paste next.

I'd be in favor of banning application-initiated access entirely. I realize this would interfere with 1PW and similar. That was always a hack, and the fact that so many apps snoop on the clipboard is a great reason for it to stop! Sensitive dataflows for things like passwords need far better protection.

Re: iOS14 reveals that TikTok may snoop clipboard contents every few keystrokes

#93

Post by patrickyeon »

_bxg1 wrote: post #29
harpastum wrote: post #15

It looks like there could be a reasonable explanation for this. There are apps that have different behavior whether or not there is text in the clipboard (e.g. enabling a "paste" button), and they're only checking that the text exists, not what it is. There's a new API that will let devs do that without triggering the user notification. If TikTok is actually constantly loading the clipboard, that's obviously terrible…

> There are apps that have different behavior whether or not there is text in the clipboard (e.g. enabling a "paste" button) People keep saying this but I've never seen one of these app-specific paste widgets. And even if I did, I wouldn't miss it in the slightest for the sake of not allowing every app to be reading my clipboard at all times . It's inexcusable to me that there isn't a permissions prompt for this. Two…

Here's an example, highlighting a band name on a festival website. Stock Chrome (and Spotify) on a stock Android on Pixel 3A https://imgur.com/a/1GqrRVs

Re: iOS14 reveals that TikTok may snoop clipboard contents every few keystrokes

#94

Post by cbsmith »

patrickyeon wrote: post #68
speedyapoc wrote: post #18

I know there are a few apps which will check the clipboard in order to provide functionality to the user. For example, some shipping apps will check the clipboard to see if the user has a copied tracking code and if so, ask the user if they want to track their copied code. Not sure if TikTok does something similar, but there are certainly innocent reasons for checking the clipboard.

I'm disappointed that so many people think "hey they could just be doing this for innocuous reasons" instead of "oh maybe nobody should be doing this even if it's the absolutely most straightforward way to do it." Even if you're only looking for a shipping tracking number and then only so that you can provide useful auto-populate, will you lose out by only checking the clipboard when the user hits your text input fie…

I'm not sure that looking at what a user is typing into the comment box for the application really qualifies as a significant privacy violation. That presumes a privacy model that isn't terribly intuitive or practical.

Now, if they had evidence that the data from the keyboard was being sent up to a server, that'd be a different story.

Re: iOS14 reveals that TikTok may snoop clipboard contents every few keystrokes

#95

Post by lwhi »

unityByFreedom wrote: post #60
dheera wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm probably going to get downvoted to hell for saying this (again) but this still doesn't solve the problem of whether Apple themselves are abusing your privacy. Also, the closed-source OS means it's impossible to see what things are doing under the hood, or modify the behavior of the OS itself to be more privacy friendly. For example, on Apple if you aren't happy with an app snooping on your IMU data, you're out of…

> this still doesn't solve the problem of whether Apple themselves are abusing your privacy Eventually you have to trust someone. This added transparency from Apple is commendable. I support open source for publicly funded software, but if it's privately owned and funded, you can choose to buy and use it or not. Private companies are not under any moral obligation to open source their code or methods. Some people are…

Why do you have to eventually trust someone?

Re: iOS14 reveals that TikTok may snoop clipboard contents every few keystrokes

#96

Post by joshstrange »

jedieaston wrote: post #56
SirensOfTitan wrote: post #32

It seems like a ton of apps are abusing this feature: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRSWdtoUAjo I categorize this as another reason why "just trust us," just isn't acceptable enough when it comes to data privacy and ownership. Companies just cannot be trusted to treat their users' data with respect given the option of: profit or privacy. (sourced from reddit: https://old.reddit.com/r/apple/comments/hejb9i/ios14_cat…

1Password grabs the clipboard whenever I open the app, whether or not I'm even in a text field. Can't think of why it needs to do that..

I wonder if it so they can restore the keyboard when you copy a password? I know they could copy it at time of copy as well but just a thought.

Re: iOS14 reveals that TikTok may snoop clipboard contents every few keystrokes

#97

Post by nullc »

I was shocked to find out that firefox enabled websites to access the clipboard sometime in the last five years or so. .. and I'm left stressed out that I could have had important passwords or key stolen this way.

This can be disabled by setting a preference: https://www.ghacks.net/2014/01/08/block-websites-reading-mod...

Re: iOS14 reveals that TikTok may snoop clipboard contents every few keystrokes

#98

Post by lwhi »

TheOtherHobbes wrote: post #79
shawnz wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Developers could create a third party ROM with the privacy enhancements which users could install.

How is users having to trust third-party developers about privacy features in a ROM different to users having to trust Apple?

Android is open source, iOS is not.

Re: iOS14 reveals that TikTok may snoop clipboard contents every few keystrokes

#99

Post by threeseed »

dheera wrote: post #52
alfalfasprout wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People love to hate on Apple but the fact is, they continue to release features to better showcase or restrict developers that abuse your privacy. The "walled garden" also ensures they apply a ton of checks to apps to better restrict abuses. Sometimes it's overly sensitive and bad things happen, but in general it's awesome that over time it becomes harder and harder to get away with apps blatantly spying on you.

I'm probably going to get downvoted to hell for saying this (again) but this still doesn't solve the problem of whether Apple themselves are abusing your privacy. Also, the closed-source OS means it's impossible to see what things are doing under the hood, or modify the behavior of the OS itself to be more privacy friendly. For example, on Apple if you aren't happy with an app snooping on your IMU data, you're out of…

> Or you can let access to your photos, but only let it see a walled garden of a few select photos.

iOS 14 has this now.

And any access to sensitive data always prompts you. And if you deny the request it sends empty data back to the app. Exactly like what you describe.

Re: iOS14 reveals that TikTok may snoop clipboard contents every few keystrokes

#100

Post by kingnight »

lwhi wrote: post #95
unityByFreedom wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> this still doesn't solve the problem of whether Apple themselves are abusing your privacy Eventually you have to trust someone. This added transparency from Apple is commendable. I support open source for publicly funded software, but if it's privately owned and funded, you can choose to buy and use it or not. Private companies are not under any moral obligation to open source their code or methods. Some people are…

Why do you have to eventually trust someone?

Because you would need to write and/or audit your entire technology toolchain — software, build tools, operating systems, hardware, etc — which isn't feasible for anyone.
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