Discussion Clipboard snooping by various apps

[Siva]

We have read several reports about more than 53 apps including Tiktok, LinkedIn and Reddit were caught reading users' clipboard data without any permission whatsoever. Thanks to iOS 14, this has been made possible by the latest privacy features on it.

I have personally updated my mobile to iOS 14 public beta 3 and have seen this feature in action. While the notification on the top saying "xxxx pasted from xxxx" every time you use the clipboard to paste something is a little annoying, it really is useful to identify the unauthorized paste of the copied content.

I was shocked to find today that the Outlook app, which I use for my Work email is also snooping the clipboard. I tested it multiple times to see if that was just a one-off case. But no, it was doing this every time I open the app after copying any text. I wonder why this is required. If it's for email writing, why can't they paste it after we click the "Paste"! See below screenshots.

I think these apps should stop doing this at least after being exposed so badly. I'm sure a similar thing is happening on Android. What I don't really know is if Google would be willing to implement something like this, as they themselves are accused of snooping/tracking the users' data heavily! Share your thoughts on this topic here.

 

[mmadhankumar]

Yes it happens on Android as well. If it's happening on strict and secure iOS, why wouldn't on Android. If i copy a link from a file/app and open a browser, that link will be already sitting in the address bar. In another browser, when I click on address bar this link will appear below the bar with the tag "copied link". They all do this thinking as if they are doing a favor. Not to mention Google's Gboard stores everything you copy in every app on their clipboard for 1 hour.

 

[thisisjagan]

When you copy a phone number, True caller fetches that and identifies it. Privacy is not something we have control anymore.