Social-Media
LinkedIn says it stops copying iOS clipboard again and again.
LinkedIn plans to prevent its application from copying the contents of the preset clipboard of an iOS device repeatedly after a user emphasized the apparently privacy-invasive practice earlier this week. ZDNet reports that the behavior was called a bug by LinkedIn.
According to Linked In engineering VP Erran Berger, the app copies clipboard contents to check "equality" between what a user types and what is in the clipboard. Berger didn't tell you why this inspection was needed. Berger wrote on Twitter: "We don't store or convey clipboard content.
A new privacy feature in iOS 14 has discovered that the behavior is currently limited for developers.
Similar to @Jeremyburge ‘s find on TikTok. Other apps have been called out as well (Call of Duty, Accuweather, AliExpress, Google News, Overstock, and Paetron) https://t.co/xZRYH0ORmW
— Don
When an app copies something from another app or device, the OS now notifies users. This has led people in apps that seem to copy clipboard content with each keystroke to find questionable behaviour.
On Thursday, LinkedIn was called from a person who said that the iPad app of LinkedIn copied the content from others sources, for example, an app for notes. The Verge was pointed to the tweet of Berger by a LinkedIn spokesperson upon request for comment. "The fix is live in our app," Berger wrote. LinkedIn was going to follow up.
For similar behavior last week, TikTok was called out. The app also seemed to be recording contents repeatedly as a typed user, so that data from other apps were spied on. The conduct was part of a "anti-spam" feature and TikTok said the practice would be discontinued.
With iOS 14 more widely — a public beta is expected in the next weeks — we'll probably learn about other apps with similarly uncomfortable clipboard copy behaviours.
