Earlier this week, a user discovered that the LinkedIn app is repeatedly copying the contents of an iOS device’s clipboard. The plans to stop the app from reading this content in the background. According to ZDNet, the company says that it is a bug.
Erran Berger, the engineering VP at LinkedIn states that the LinkedIn application copies the content of an iOS device’s clipboard to perform an ‘equality check’ between what an individual is typing and what type of content is in their clipboard. However, Berger did not explain why this check is necessary.
Berger posted a tweet saying that the company does not store or transmit the contents on the clipboards of users. A new privacy feature in iOS 14 helped to discover this behavior. The feature is still currently in a limited beta for app developers. The new OS notifies you when a specific application copies something from another application or device. iOS 14 features a new banner that allows users to know if an application pastes from the clipboard. This clipboard feature has already exposed the behavior of some well-known applications such as AliExpress, AccuWeather, and TikTok, etc.
The new feature has ultimately led to users spotting questionable behavior from the application that seems to be copying the contents of clipboards with every keystroke. On Thursday, a user called out LinkedIn in a tweet. The user stated that LinkedIn’s iPad application was copying contents from other sources like the notes application.
Berger stated in the tweet that the company would follow up after the fix is live in the LinkedIn application.
Last week, the popular short-video app, TikTok, was also called out for similar behavior. The TikTok app seemed to be repeatedly reading clipboard contents as a person typed. This led to a concern that the TikTok app was spying on data from various other applications. Along with TikTok several other apps found to do the same.
According to TikTok, this behavior was part of an ‘anti-spam’ feature, and the company also announced that it would discontinue this practice. It seems that iOS 14 will help us to discover this type of behavior in other applications too. A public beta of iOS 14 is expected to be rolled out in the upcoming few weeks. We may learn of other applications with similar clipboard copying behaviors that are discomforting for several users.
Read next: LinkedIn Adds Two New Features, Followers Analytics For Pages And Audio Recording Of Your Name
Erran Berger, the engineering VP at LinkedIn states that the LinkedIn application copies the content of an iOS device’s clipboard to perform an ‘equality check’ between what an individual is typing and what type of content is in their clipboard. However, Berger did not explain why this check is necessary.
Berger posted a tweet saying that the company does not store or transmit the contents on the clipboards of users. A new privacy feature in iOS 14 helped to discover this behavior. The feature is still currently in a limited beta for app developers. The new OS notifies you when a specific application copies something from another application or device. iOS 14 features a new banner that allows users to know if an application pastes from the clipboard. This clipboard feature has already exposed the behavior of some well-known applications such as AliExpress, AccuWeather, and TikTok, etc.
LinkedIn is copying the contents of my clipboard every keystroke. IOS 14 allows users to see each paste notification.— Don 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 urspace.io (@DonCubed) July 2, 2020
I’m on an IPad Pro and it’s copying from the clipboard of my MacBook Pro.
Tik tok just got called out for this exact reason. pic.twitter.com/l6NIT8ixEF
The new feature has ultimately led to users spotting questionable behavior from the application that seems to be copying the contents of clipboards with every keystroke. On Thursday, a user called out LinkedIn in a tweet. The user stated that LinkedIn’s iPad application was copying contents from other sources like the notes application.
Berger stated in the tweet that the company would follow up after the fix is live in the LinkedIn application.
Last week, the popular short-video app, TikTok, was also called out for similar behavior. The TikTok app seemed to be repeatedly reading clipboard contents as a person typed. This led to a concern that the TikTok app was spying on data from various other applications. Along with TikTok several other apps found to do the same.
According to TikTok, this behavior was part of an ‘anti-spam’ feature, and the company also announced that it would discontinue this practice. It seems that iOS 14 will help us to discover this type of behavior in other applications too. A public beta of iOS 14 is expected to be rolled out in the upcoming few weeks. We may learn of other applications with similar clipboard copying behaviors that are discomforting for several users.
Read next: LinkedIn Adds Two New Features, Followers Analytics For Pages And Audio Recording Of Your Name
