It also revealed to me that that Dropbox was tracking my location in the background while i was traveling on a train..
iOS14 reveals that TikTok may snoop clipboard contents every few keystrokes
481–490 of 613 posts
Re: iOS14 reveals that TikTok may snoop clipboard contents every few keystrokes
#482It 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…
In that Reddit thread the author of a Reddit app mentions that they look at the clipboard to see if you have a Reddit link, and offer to open that page in the app (as iOS offers no better way). On Twitter I saw a. Doing app mention they trigger the notification on every key press because they have custom ‘paste’ button that only shows when you have something copied.
For Apollo's use case there's a solution: iOS 14 adds a new API that lets you perform a pattern match against the contents of the clipboard. That way Apollo can attempt to match a Reddit link, and only actually read the clipboard if that match is successful.
Re: iOS14 reveals that TikTok may snoop clipboard contents every few keystrokes
#483I 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.
For that use case, it makes sense for an app to read the clipboard when it's in the Foreground.
I cannot think of a single good use case of a background app reading the clipboard like TikTok is doing in this link.
Re: iOS14 reveals that TikTok may snoop clipboard contents every few keystrokes
#484Fu*king A... uh maybe we need to make Open Source required by law... just anything but this. WE as society cannot allow this impunity that is occurring by a very well powerful corporation, a nation-state sponsored Corporation, no less. Where does it end? Why do we allow this to occur? Why do members of our own society not know the perils of using this technology?
Finally someone tackles the real issue here. You can't trust proprietary software, no matter which country or company is behind it. Aim for free software instead of putting your trust in a company's black box.
Re: iOS14 reveals that TikTok may snoop clipboard contents every few keystrokes
#485Earlier quoted context omitted.
"It seems like a ton of apps are abusing this feature:" Honest question: Why do we need this feature? As a user, I am happy to sacrafice whatever benefit it provides -- to end users -- to stop the abuse. Obviously the feature provides benefits to app developer personal data collectors. OK by me to remove feature.
I've never seen a "I will paste your clipboard for you" feature be used in any app, ever.
A dictionary app I use looks at the clipboard when opened and automatically displays a translation iff 1) the copied text is new compared to the previous time the app was used; and 2) the text is in the source language.
It's a pretty neat use of the feature, although I'd still gladly let go of it if it means that the other 20 apps I regularly use don't get to rummage through my clipboard for no good reason.
Re: iOS14 reveals that TikTok may snoop clipboard contents every few keystrokes
#486Earlier quoted context omitted.
Plenty of US companies build apps that do the exact same thing (checking your clipboard).
Do you like TikTok reading your clipboard?
I don’t even have a TikTok account. I simply pay enough to have realized a long time ago that the contents of the system clipboard are available to the application that’s in the foreground on pretty much every OS I’ve used. Hence I have no need to jump to pearl-clutching xenophobia over it.
Re: iOS14 reveals that TikTok may snoop clipboard contents every few keystrokes
#487Earlier quoted context omitted.
Agreed. Reading the clipboard should require the user to choose "paste" just like the browser does. You can't read it unless the user expressly trying to paste into your app.
This is true for nearly all apps, but it is important to consider special cases. I use a keyboard app (SwiftKey) that shows contents of clipboard, if recently added, as a shortcut button. It's pretty nice. I can probably turn it off but I don't intend to. Accessibility apps likely have a lot of examples like this too
ParcelTrack tells me if there is a tracking number in my clipboard and begins the process of adding a new shipment to track.
Re: iOS14 reveals that TikTok may snoop clipboard contents every few keystrokes
#488Earlier quoted context omitted.
Looks like photos is addressed in iOS 14 https://appleinsider.com/articles/20/06/24/apple-fine-tunes-... Agree tighter control over contacts sharing would be nice but I don’t think it’s malicious on Apple’s part that this isn’t possible - they’ve quite clearly shown they are on the side of user privacy, but they do also tend to move at a fairly slow pace
The choice of only allowing access to specific actual photos seems an unusual one. I would have thought there was a big debate in Product Mgmt over this vs the more obvious allow an app access to a given album. One presumes the sticking point came when someone took a photo out of an album. Does that mean they are explicitly removing access? I don't see it as a huge issue... maybe there is some kind of technical hurdl…
I've had an iPhone for years. I didn't even know albums existed. I've just noticed the tab in Photos when I went looking for it after reading your comment. And it turns out, I do have one other album already, with a couple of photos in it, though I have no idea why or whether I created the album or how the photos got there or what purpose it serves.
When it comes to security features, simple and obvious behaviour is good, pretty much always. The same is true of user interface design, and the lack of both documentation and natural discoverability on iOS has always been a pretty glaring weakness of the platform. Complexity creates edge cases, and edge cases create vulnerabilities, including due to misunderstandings and resulting human error.
Judging by the other replies to the parent comment, apparently I'm not alone here, so I'm guessing if Apple did any user research about this, that "big debate" probably lasted a few seconds...
Re: iOS14 reveals that TikTok may snoop clipboard contents every few keystrokes
#489Earlier quoted context omitted.
I am certainly happy about the steady pro-privacy process. I personally consider Apple full of shit until two features are released: 1. Contact sharing needs a complete overhaul. Some apps need to have access to my contacts. I get this. But they only need the name and the phone number. They don’t need addresses, birthdays and additional notes I put in m contacts. Sure, I could have a separate contacts app with "meta…
Interesting that you "personally consider Apple full of shit until..." and then demand _they_ be more granular (It is either full access or no access.) Couldn't you consider Apple partially filled with shit?
Ok, if you take it literal: Apple is partially filled with shit, because they try to tackle privacy but seem to miss some very obvious design choices where users would benefit a lot if they were implemented properly.
As I said, I'm glad they tackled the Photos problem. But of course, I could ask what took them YEARS to do so. They even have a private album in Photos but didn't think that some apps shouldn't get access to these pictures?
Re: iOS14 reveals that TikTok may snoop clipboard contents every few keystrokes
#490Earlier quoted context omitted.
Ah yes permissions: "-This clock app needs to access your photos, contacts, all the hardware the phone has and all your cloud accounts -No -The app can not function without the required permissions."
Yes and the app gets uninstalled and review bombed on google's play store. Seems like a successful democratic process to me.
>App steals data from millions
>Gets catched years later and review bombed
>Author walks away with pockets full and probably onto the next money-grabbing project
Oh yes, classic "successful democratic process"