LinkedIn, like TikTok, copies data from iOS clipboard, but says it's a mistake

LinkedIn, like TikTok, copies information from iOS clipboard, but says it's a mistake

(Epitome credit: mrmohock / Shutterstock.com)

LinkedIn, like TikTok, admitted that is has been regularly accessing data temporarily held on the clipboards of unsuspecting iOS users, according to a report by ZDNet.

This clipboard copying was uncovered by a user who was testing out the beta version of iOS 14, and it seems to exist an issue in the social network's iPhone and iPad apps.

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A new privacy feature in the iOS 14 beta notifies users if an app or service accesses text on their clipboards.

Last week, we reported that TikTok had been evidently been accessing the iOS clipboard, sometimes as frequently as with every new word typed.

The Chinese viral-video sensation had come under burn for the privacy upshot earlier this year as well, but at the time its parent company ByteDance denied allegations made past security researchers.

The iOS clipboard tin be read by whatever app, which is exactly how clipboards are supposed to work.

Nonetheless, that creates a privacy risk, according to two researchers who issued a study dorsum in March. The report paper listed several dozen apps that were found copying information from the iOS clipboard, including The New York Times, CBS News, Bejeweled, Accuweather and Overstock.com.

Defenseless red-handed

Now, it seems more companies are doing the same thing. Donald Morton, the CEO and founder of Urspace, a job-portfolio website in Los Angeles, wrote on Twitter yesterday (June 2) that he had been using an iPad Pro and received a notification that LinkedIn had copied data from the clipboard of his MacBook Pro.

"LinkedIn is copying the contents of my clipboard every keystroke. IOS 14 allows users to come across each paste notification," Morton tweeted. "I'm on an IPad Pro and it's copying from the clipboard of my MacBook Pro. Tik tok (sic) merely got called out for this exact reason."

LinkedIn is copying the contents of my clipboard every keystroke. IOS 14 allows users to run into each paste notification. I'm on an IPad Pro and it'south copying from the clipboard of my MacBook Pro.Tik tok simply got called out for this exact reason. flick.twitter.com/l6NIT8ixEFJuly 2, 2020

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Morton said he saw the Reddit app on his iPad doing the same matter. (UPDATE: Reddit told The Verge that information technology was fixing the app so this would no longer happen.)

Fixing the upshot

A spokesperson for LinkedIn told ZDNet that this behavior was the result of a issues and had not been a planned functionality of its iOS app.

Erran Berger, VP of engineering of consumer products at LinkedIn, responded to Morton on Twitter, promising that the firm would solve the bug.

"Nosotros've traced this to a lawmaking path that only does an equality cheque betwixt the clipboard contents and the currently typed content in a text box," Berger tweeted. "We don't shop or transmit the clipboard contents. We will follow upwardly one time the fix is live in our app."

Hi @DonCubed. Appreciate you lot raising this. Nosotros've traced this to a lawmaking 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.July 3, 2020

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Nicholas Fearn is a freelance applied science announcer and copywriter from the Welsh valleys. His piece of work has appeared in publications such every bit the FT, the Independent, the Daily Telegraph, The Next Web, T3, Android Central, Computer Weekly, and many others. He also happens to be a diehard Mariah Carey fan!