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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

#321
post #296
post #289

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> full of Indian scammers (not meant in a racist way, but it is definitely perceived that way) (I'm not Indian but) the non-racist way to say that is 'full of scammers', since the scammers' nationality has nothing to do with your distaste for their behaviour.

If all your scammers are from one geographical location halfway across the world, it is fine to refer to it and you shouldn't be shamed for naming it. Lest we police ourselves into ignorance.

Only if you are having a conversation where the demographics of the scammers has relevance.

In the case of discussing LinkedIn, it doesn’t matter where the scammers are from. The adjective is redundant in this context.

In this thread, almost any other adjective would have allowed the main meaning of the sentence to continue uninterrupted (“filthy scammers”, “frustrating scammers”, “purple scammers”, “fearless scammers”). “Scammers” already includes a negative connotation. By adding a redundant adjective to an already pejorative noun, you run the risk of imparting some of that negativity onto the adjective as well. This easily leads to the perception of racism.

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

#322

I deleted linked in. I wish i still had the 'connections' and their kind words about my work. Beyond that it hs mever done anything for me. Well with the exception of fooling me into trying to use it and it never being useful Looking forward to msft/linkedin employess minusing me into oblivion haha

I deleted it years ago but then had to reactivate it because job searching was proving difficult without those contacts. Soon as I've got enough "real"* Go mileage under my belt, I'll delete it again.

* Remember kids, experience only counts if you've done it for realsies at a job, never mind how long you've actually done it.

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

#323
When you install software from JetBrains and have the registration key on your clipboard it will autofill it into the key input field.

There are so many programs using this that it all boils down to trust.

Personally I don't trust LinkedIn so I keep away from them. But in this case they still might have a valid reason for this.

The fix: be more transparent about why the app is doing it. And the browser/OS could show a popup every time an app reads the clipboard to make the user aware of this.

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

#324

An explanation from LinkedIn: https://twitter.com/eberger45/status/1278843576638570496 ------ 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. ---------- An example of this is in a library we have open sourced, and you can find th…

> An example of this is in a library we have open sourced, and you can find the fix here This reads for me like: As an example of this I go to the shooting range every Friday, just for fun, as you can see it on this picture I published on FB, that's why I didn't shoot my neighbour. He may be right, but that's not an evidence. And we are talking about a company acting like a con man since ages.

> He may be right, but that's not an evidence. And we are talking about a company acting like a con man since ages.

I don't have any reason to not believe their explanation. And I don't think my clipboard is useful to them for anything else. Many other apps are doing it as well and a few of them gave the same explanation.

But, that doesn't mean that copying clipboard is a good idea. I don't like any app to copy my clipboard. I also don't like it that apps/companies don't respect any boundaries unless it's forced/blocked by the OS. They just try too hard to reach where they don't need to reach.

If there wasn't enough restriction from the OS, surely someone has already came up with a "creative" idea to detect spammers using front camera or reading device storage and a lot of apps were using it. I don't like it that companies aren't sensitive about user rights and what users feel about what they are doing.

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

#325

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seeing the mob mentality surrounding this is honestly scary. All the top voted comments have pretty much decided that this is used for nefarious purposes, with absolutely zero evidence. Same goes for TikTok and the DDG favicon saga from yesterday. Whatever happened to Occam’s (edit: Meant Hanlon's) razor?

Eh. It’s like I already punched you in the face 9 times. The 10th time I’m making a punching motion, you’re probably going to duck away. Even if I wasn’t going to punch you, but instead giving you an ice cream. If you’re a shitty company (TikTok, LinkedIn) people are going to assume you’re acting shitty when it looks like you’re acting shitty.

Yeah, it's like The Boy that Cried Wolf - sure, people shouldn't jump to conclusions, but if we're shown something enough times it's easy to become conditioned to a particular expectation.

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

#326
post #323

When you install software from JetBrains and have the registration key on your clipboard it will autofill it into the key input field. There are so many programs using this that it all boils down to trust. Personally I don't trust LinkedIn so I keep away from them. But in this case they still might have a valid reason for this. The fix: be more transparent about why the app is doing it. And the browser/OS could show…

The OS really shouldn't grant apps access to the clipboard until release by the user in my opinion.

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

#327
post #245
post #243

This is precisely how Chinese authorities track down activists using apps without Location data, it was disclosured few weeks ago. They patiently read user's clipboard data and wait for a picture taken and copied to clipboard, then extract its EXIF geoloc tags and send the coordinates to the police.

Mind linking to a news source for this? Curious to read more about it.

I tried but it was lost in my twitter feed.

Damn those non-chronological timelines.

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

#328
post #323

When you install software from JetBrains and have the registration key on your clipboard it will autofill it into the key input field. There are so many programs using this that it all boils down to trust. Personally I don't trust LinkedIn so I keep away from them. But in this case they still might have a valid reason for this. The fix: be more transparent about why the app is doing it. And the browser/OS could show…

The OS really shouldn't grant apps access to the clipboard until release by the user in my opinion.

Well the moment you allow access because you think the app has good intentions it can misuse it later.

Maybe the popup should not show when the user presses 'paste'. But I believe awareness is the first step.

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

#329
post #297

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And if all the immigrants you don't like are from the same place?

That’s completely different, because it’s based on your personal opinion/attitude towards certain people. On the other hand, calling scammers who they are is not subjective (unless you’re falsely accusing someone).

'Who they are' is scammers, it's not relevant that some of them are Indian.

My point is that it's the same because the 'personal opinion/attitude towards certain people' is that all of them are Indian.

It's as racist as saying 'I'm sick of these Poles taking our jobs'. The truthful existence of Polish economic migration doesn't make it not a racist attitude.

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

#330

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This should be higher, above all of the mobs teething for vengeance. It’s an innocuous comparison of text input to the pasteboard to prevent unwanted autocorrect insertions.[0] Probably the same code used by TikTok too. the code and and comments are here: [0] https://github.com/linkedin/Hakawai/pull/162/commits/c3f8958...

Seeing the mob mentality surrounding this is honestly scary. All the top voted comments have pretty much decided that this is used for nefarious purposes, with absolutely zero evidence. Same goes for TikTok and the DDG favicon saga from yesterday. Whatever happened to Occam’s (edit: Meant Hanlon's) razor?

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