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LinkedIn is copying the contents of my clipboard on every keystroke

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Re: LinkedIn is copying the contents of my clipboard on every keystroke

#181
post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ugh, I won't use their phone app, they're way too slimy to live there. They conveniently forget your mail settings periodically, too, forcing you to opt-out of various garbage again, or to just trash all the mail. They're at least as scummy as FB, if not worse. My (related) new rule: if your site demands a phone number for an account, I will not create an account on your site.

I’m not a fan of giving phone numbers out either. When I have to I give one to sites I hold suspect I use a number from the safe fictitious range allowed for use on TV and in movies. It’s like example.org but for phone numbers https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/555_(telephone_number)

TIL. Cool trick.

Re: LinkedIn is copying the contents of my clipboard on every keystroke

#182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can copy-paste styled text, images, and other kinds of non-plaintext data, so it couldn't be implemented quite that simply.

I wish this wasn't a feature. Every time I paste something in iOS Mail it will inevitably get pasted as "rich" text where I have to put extra effort to clear that formatting (paste it into a plaintext-only input field, then copy from there).

Use Command-Shift-V, but I agree that pasting as plain text should be the default.

Re: LinkedIn is copying the contents of my clipboard on every keystroke

#183

Why does a website or app even need access to the clipboard? I would maybe naively think that the OS could send the characters on the clipboard as if they were typed quickly, end of story.

You can copy-paste styled text, images, and other kinds of non-plaintext data, so it couldn't be implemented quite that simply.

Agreed, but that still doesn't mean that and app should ever have the query the contents of the clipboard. The OS could send a message to the app with the contents of the clipboard when the user presses CTRL-V.

Re: LinkedIn is copying the contents of my clipboard on every keystroke

#184
post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe I'm missing something but a clipboard permission seems to be pretty useless for most apps. When I want to login I have to paste my password, when I want to paste an email address into a Linkedin chat I need the clipboard. So everyone would just grant that permission anyway as it makes a lot of apps useless without and they'd just continue their harvesting after that. It would be a very small percentage to selec…

The clipboard is controlled by the OS. When you 'paste' the OS sends the contents to the app. There is no need for an app to have access to the clipboard.

I'm curious - have you ever actually looked into how clipboards work across various OSes? Because programmatic clipboard access is the norm pretty much across the board.

Re: LinkedIn is copying the contents of my clipboard on every keystroke

#185

LinkedIn has a history of acting like a cretin: multiple data breaches, dark patterns where they don't fix their buggy mobile site and just put up a disclaimer "problems with the mobile site - download our app" (just so that they can harvest a wider range of data). I managed many marketing campaigns on Linkedin over the years and spent thousands each month on the platform as a corporate user. If you think that paying…

My first interaction with LinkedIn happened when they spammed me using my roommate's name, after getting "permission" through a dark pattern. After such a fantastic first impression, I have no intention of ever using LinkedIn.

Re: LinkedIn is copying the contents of my clipboard on every keystroke

#186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not a fan of any of the big tech companies, but Apple needs to be applauded for this feature. Can't wait to see how many such behavior is exposed by iOS 14

iOS isn't free from this kind of snooping[1][2]. [1] "How popular apps can read your phone's clipboard without permission": https://www.mysk.blog/2020/03/10/popular-iphone-and-ipad-app... [2] "Popular iPhone and iPad Apps Snooping on the Pasteboard": https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2020/03/30/popular-ap...

> iOS isn't free from this kind of snooping

They didn't say it was. They're saying they're looking forward to the next major release which alerts the user when this happens. That's why all these stories are coming out right after the release of the beta.

Re: LinkedIn is copying the contents of my clipboard on every keystroke

#187
post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It would annoy their (Apple's) users more than necessary.

I actually really like how Apple implemented this though. If apps aren't doing something very clearly nefarious, it's not annoying at all.

It's not necessarily nefarious though.

https://twitter.com/twolivesleft/status/1275776460918157315

Re: LinkedIn is copying the contents of my clipboard on every keystroke

#188
post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not a fan of any of the big tech companies, but Apple needs to be applauded for this feature. Can't wait to see how many such behavior is exposed by iOS 14

Or they need to be lambasted for not making it a permission like it should be.

I'd love to know what OS you use that has a clipboard access permission for the foreground application.

Re: LinkedIn is copying the contents of my clipboard on every keystroke

#189
post #103
post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

iOS very early-on took on a model of not trusting the software you install on it, and for good reason. Android and the web followed soon afterward. This is the expectation today. Doubly so given Apple's chest-beating about privacy. This clipboard scandal is unacceptable.

Which is the whole point behind giving a notification about it. Clipboard use is so core and fundamental, literally every app with any kind of entry box would need to ask ahead or you'd hit that so randomly all the time nobody would pay any attention to the warning. The current feature being added allows this to happen, for awareness to be raised. To be honest, I'm surprised we haven't heard of more snoopy apps alrea…

> Clipboard use is so core and fundamental, literally every app with any kind of entry box would need to ask ahead or you'd hit that so randomly all the time nobody would pay any attention to the warning.

That's, one way to implement it...

Alternatively, and how I'm pretty sure it already works, is that on paste the clipboard could insert content directly into the control, never involving the app in the process.

Apps with completely custom inputs would need to see the contents, but that's both rare and usually a bad idea in the first place.

Re: LinkedIn is copying the contents of my clipboard on every keystroke

#190

I've used plenty of software before that offers to do something based on clipboard contents, often when there isn't even anywhere to paste. E.g. a phone dialer app that asks if you want to dial the number in the clipboard when you start it, an image editor that asks if I want to create a new image size the dimensions of the clipboard, a torrenting program that when I choose to import a torrent automatically grabs it…

Negligence from a trillion dollar corporation is a form of malice. They have the money to audit their products for quality and privacy issues. Instead they choose to not give a shit unless the media calls them out (and sometimes not even then.)
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