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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

#101

Post by bobthechef »

BowBun wrote: post #58
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…

Homebrew software and hacks aren't feasible solutions for the general population. You can't expect a tech-illiterate person to put up with all of that to protect their right to privacy. Like it or not, solutions like Apples' are much more efficient at protecting 1 billion (exaggeration) people at once.

Not just illiterate. How many people here have the time or desire to inspect every app they use? It's a ridiculous proposition. We all have better things to do.

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

#102

Post by shawnz »

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?

Independent audits could be conducted on those privacy enhanced ROMs, if there was enough interest.

I'm not saying this is the most practical solution to this problem but at least it's a possibility.

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

#103

Post by creato »

csa wrote: post #14
beamatronic wrote: post #4

Why does any app have access to the clipboard? Seems like a big security hole.

In order to know when you should enable the paste option. It can be an elegant design choice, but also a design choice that appears to be or is an abuse of privacy.

> It can be an elegant design choice, but also a design choice that appears to be or is an abuse of privacy.

For decades, all programs running on your computer had access to the clipboard. A primary intended purpose of the clipboard is precisely to share information between different programs. Maybe it is in fact a security issue that should be rethought, but calling it an abuse of privacy seems extreme.

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

#104

Post by the_gipsy »

kingnight wrote: post #100
lwhi wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

not a single person, but the sum of all people looking at the different parts. that's how open source works.

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

#105

Post by lucasmullens »

nullc wrote: post #97

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...

Firefox prompts for your permission to read from the clipboard: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Mozilla/Add-ons/Web...

But I'm not sure if that's always been the case.

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

#106

Post by patrickyeon »

cbsmith wrote: post #94
patrickyeon wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

In this case we're talking about apps monitoring the copy buffer when they aren't foregrounded. Your example of monitoring a comment box isn't what we're discussing. In the copy buffer example, I think a privacy model of "an app in the background can't read what I'm copy-pasting in other apps" seems very reasonable and fits my idea of what a "standard user" would expect.

Personally, I would prefer a world where nothing can pull from the copy buffer, it needs to be actively pushed by the user. It seems crazy to me that that isn't the case.

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

#107

Post by baddox »

the_gipsy wrote: post #104
kingnight wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

not a single person, but the sum of all people looking at the different parts. that's how open source works.

And thus you would need to trust those people.

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

#108

Post by dylan604 »

patrickyeon wrote: post #84
shawnz wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Android similarly has been continually improving the privacy/permissions model of the OS when it comes to third party apps. I am not sure that Apple has any obvious advantage in that department specifically.

I've only ever been an Android user, but for a while I was paying a lot of attention to iOS too. It seems to me like they've been back and forthing, as one side figures out some improvements, the other side more-or-less re-implements them on their next release with their own unrelated improvements. Seems like a good thing, really.

Not being an Android user, one of the negatives that was often talked about (maybe no longer true?) is that a lot of phones could not upgrade to new versions of Android. Is that still a thing, or was that limited to the lower tier phones?

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

#109

Post by untog »

alfalfasprout wrote: post #47
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…

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.

Yes and no: they still allowed developers to do it for a very long time. I remember years ago when a social app was chastised for uploading your entire contact book to their servers without asking, because at the time there was no permission barrier for it.

In this instance, apps have been doing this for years. Apple knows this. It’s not entirely clear why they only decided to act on it now.

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

#110

Post by wnevets »

shawnz wrote: post #77
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.

Android similarly has been continually improving the privacy/permissions model of the OS when it comes to third party apps. I am not sure that Apple has any obvious advantage in that department specifically.

Especially when its taken 14 versions to get this information.
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