Apple IOS 14 Again Catches Wet Apps Stalking Users

Illustration (Photo: Pixabay)

JAKARTA - Bringing iOS 14 is a gift for today's mobile users, especially Apple devices. This is because iOS 14 has managed to find out a number of applications that are trying to stalk iPhone users' activities.

Launching ZDNet, Sunday, July 5, although it has not been officially launched, a beta version or trial of iOS 14 is available which can be downloaded. Apple's new operating system includes a new security feature that alerts users when an app copies typed text on the iPhone clipboard, where potentially sensitive data such as passwords can be stored. It is possible that this can also happen to Android users.

This feature has exposed several errant apps, including TikTok. iOS 14 again finds a similar app namely Reddit and the professional networking and job search platform LinkedIn.

Co-founder of the website builder, Urspace, Don Morton, via his Twitter account, revealed that he has found evidence that LinkedIn is continuously copying the contents of its MacBook Pro clipboard. He got to know the data when he was using his iPad Pro

LinkedIn is copying the contents of my clipboard every keystroke. IOS 14 allows users to see each paste notification. 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

- Don 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 urspace.io (@DonCubed) July 2, 2020

VP of Engineering of Consumer Products, Erran Berger was quick to respond to Morton's discovery. The company immediately released the latest version of the platform's iOS app to Apple's App Store.

"We do not store or transmit clipboard content. We will follow up after the fix lives in our application," said Berger.

In addition, Morton also encountered a similar problem with Reddit, where typed text on the clipboard is copied with each keystroke.

Reddit also responded to Morton's post in a statement claiming that the app does not store or transmit clipboard content. But they will also plan to release an application update on July 14.

"We tracked this down to a codepath in the post composer who checked the URL on the board and then suggested a post title based on the text content of the URL," said a Reddit spokesman.

In his blog post, Morton revealed that the real problem is that any app has the ability to access the clipboard on the iPhone without asking the device owner's permission. He suggested that Apple and Google ask apps to first ask permission from users before copying content on their clipboard.

However, LinkedIn and Reddit are not the only apps caught copying clipboard content. Talal researchers Haj Bakry and Tommy Mysk have published a list of more than 50 iOS apps that do the same.

One of the apps that caught the most attention a few weeks ago was TikTok, which isn't really a privacy role model. According to Bakry and Mysk, TikTok has stopped doing this in releasing app updates.

There are quite a few well-known apps on the list that classify apps into news, games, social networking categories, including CNBC, Fox News, New York Times, Accuweather, Bed, Bath & Beyond, Overstock, and Weather Network.