Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
If there were ever an app that needed to be booted from the app store for compromising user privacy, it's Tiktok. It's too bad it's gotten too popular and Apple can no longer give it the boot without massive backlash.

Tiktok is basically a ripoff of Vine. Why the HELL didn't Vine catch on, but Tiktok did? Sigh.
Vine did catch on, it was huge amongst young people. Twitter just killed it because it couldn’t be monetized yet and their management is totally incompetent
 
Well, you say that, but up until now, it's been allowed to happen.

I guess Apple can see into the future and predict any kind of abuse a bad app developer might come up with? Access to the clipboard is pretty integral to any app. I would never think of an app developer abusing that access in this way. It appears that once this practice was discovered, Apple acted to block it.
[automerge]1593270014[/automerge]
I still don't understand this - apps are pasting from other apps? Unrelated apps? Can someone explain?

The clipboard is not confined to one app. That’s why you can copy text from Safari and paste it into an email. This is essential to the system. All apps need access to the clipboard because of this. It seems Apple didn’t predict that app developers would find a way to abuse this and constantly scan your clipboard for stuff and send it to their servers. Glad they have identified the practice and moved to stop it.
 
Oh please, lots of US software is trash too.
Sure, but at least you can get the white guy from NYC to the court and ask him about Cambridge Analytica. God and the Chinese elite knows where our data will end up being when we use a Chinese app and for what purpose they are going to use it.
 
  • Like
Reactions: icanhazmac
I keep seeing people ask "why does Apple even allow apps to read the clipboard" and I wonder how they thought copy and paste worked...
[automerge]1593301578[/automerge]
Yes, you can COPY from one app and PASTE into another, but typically YOU are the one doing the pasting. On a Mac you'd hit cmd-V or Edit -> Paste. On iOS you'd hold your finger to the text field and hit paste.

What's happening here (and what I feel shouldn't be possible) is app code peeking at the clipboard without the user initiating a paste operation. That sounds like a serious security hole, especially since users sometimes copy & paste passwords.
The OS can't really know if the user initiated the operation. How do you think normal pasting works?

User taps the paste button, the *app* handles the button tap by asking the OS for the clipboard contents and inserting them where the cursor is. When the user pastes text, iOS14 will popup the same notification discussed here.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: chabig
i was reading somewhere and they had a list of apps and things:
after 11 or so pages in this thread i would think there might be a stronger list
keep in mind all this information is dated
worth noting thisis only someone's list, not mine, so dont shoot the messenger (me).

"
researchers found the following iOS apps were reading users’ clipboard data every time the app was opened with no clear reason for doing so:


  • App Name — BundleID

News


  • ABC News — com.abcnews.ABCNews
  • Al Jazeera English — ajenglishiphone
  • CBC News — ca.cbc.CBCNews
  • CBS News — com.H443NM7F8H.CBSNews
  • CNBC — com.nbcuni.cnbc.cnbcrtipad
  • Fox News — com.foxnews.foxnews
  • News Break — com.particlenews.newsbreak
  • New York Times — com.nytimes.NYTimes
  • NPR — org.npr.nprnews
  • ntv Nachrichten — de.n-tv.n-tvmobil
  • Reuters — com.thomsonreuters.Reuters
  • Russia Today — com.rt.RTNewsEnglish
  • Stern Nachrichten — de.grunerundjahr.sternneu
  • The Economist — com.economist.lamarr
  • The Huffington Post — com.huffingtonpost.HuffingtonPost
  • The Wall Street Journal — com.dowjones.WSJ.ipad
  • Vice News — com.vice.news.VICE-News

Games


  • 8 Ball Pool™ — com.miniclip.8ballpoolmult
  • AMAZE!!! com.amaze.game
  • Bejeweled com.ea.ios.bejeweledskies
  • Block PuzzleGame.BlockPuzzle
  • Classic Bejeweled com.popcap.ios.Bej3
  • Classic Bejeweled HDcom.popcap.ios.Bej3HD
  • FlipTheGun com.playgendary.flipgun
  • Fruit Ninja com.halfbrick.FruitNinjaLite
  • Golfmasters com.playgendary.sportmasterstwo
  • Letter Soup com.candywriter.apollo7
  • Love Nikki com.elex.nikki
  • My Emma com.crazylabs.myemma
  • Plants vs. Zombies™ Heroes com.ea.ios.pvzheroes
  • Pooking – Billiards City com.pool.club.billiards.city
  • PUBG Mobile com.tencent.ig
  • Tomb of the Mask com.happymagenta.fromcore
  • Tomb of the Mask: Color com.happymagenta.totm2
  • Total Party Kill com.adventureislands.totalpartykill
  • Watermarbling com.hydro.dipping

Social Networking


  • TikTok — com.zhiliaoapp.musically
  • ToTalk — totalk.gofeiyu.com
  • Tok — com.SimpleDate.Tok
  • Truecaller — com.truesoftware.TrueCallerOther
  • Viber — com.viber
  • Weibo — com.sina.weibo
  • Zoosk — com.zoosk.Zoosk

Other


  • 10% Happier: Meditation —com.changecollective.tenpercenthappier
  • 5-0 Radio Police Scanner — com.smartestapple.50radiofree
  • Accuweather — com.yourcompany.TestWithCustomTabs
  • AliExpress Shopping App — com.alibaba.iAliexpress
  • Bed Bath & Beyond — com.digby.bedbathbeyond
  • Dazn — com.dazn.theApp
  • Hotels.com — com.hotels.HotelsNearMe
  • Hotel Tonight — com.hoteltonight.prod
  • Overstock — com.overstock.app
  • Pigment – Adult Coloring Book — com.pixite.pigment
  • Recolor Coloring Book to Color — com.sumoing.ReColor
  • Sky Ticket — de.sky.skyonline
  • The Weather Network — com.theweathernetwork.weathereyeiphone
"
 
Last edited:
I just caught Ali Express doing this, it’s constant like every ten seconds, had to delete it, disgraceful behaviour and Apple need to stop it, I always assumed Apple gave us privacy but they seem to allow some disgusting behaviour in the App Store, it’s shameful
Also I have deleted every app I have in that list and won’t be reinstalling, I refuse to be Royally shafted
 
Last edited:
AFAIK almost every Chinese app does that, Weibo, WeChat, TikTok, Taobao... It's really great iOS has all those features
The full report on this security gap is that every major US and Euoprean media company was spying on users clipboards: Economist, NY Times, Fox, etc - not just “Chinese” social media...
[automerge]1593347305[/automerge]
i was reading somewhere and they had a list of apps and things:
after 11 or so pages in this thread i would think there might be a stronger list
keep in mind all this information is dated
worth noting thisis only someone's list, not mine, so dont shoot the messenger (me).

"
researchers found the following iOS apps were reading users’ clipboard data every time the app was opened with no clear reason for doing so:


  • App Name — BundleID

News


  • ABC News — com.abcnews.ABCNews
  • Al Jazeera English — ajenglishiphone
  • CBC News — ca.cbc.CBCNews
  • CBS News — com.H443NM7F8H.CBSNews
  • CNBC — com.nbcuni.cnbc.cnbcrtipad
  • Fox News — com.foxnews.foxnews
  • News Break — com.particlenews.newsbreak
  • New York Times — com.nytimes.NYTimes
  • NPR — org.npr.nprnews
  • ntv Nachrichten — de.n-tv.n-tvmobil
  • Reuters — com.thomsonreuters.Reuters
  • Russia Today — com.rt.RTNewsEnglish
  • Stern Nachrichten — de.grunerundjahr.sternneu
  • The Economist — com.economist.lamarr
  • The Huffington Post — com.huffingtonpost.HuffingtonPost
  • The Wall Street Journal — com.dowjones.WSJ.ipad
  • Vice News — com.vice.news.VICE-News

Games


  • 8 Ball Pool™ — com.miniclip.8ballpoolmult
  • AMAZE!!! com.amaze.game
  • Bejeweled com.ea.ios.bejeweledskies
  • Block PuzzleGame.BlockPuzzle
  • Classic Bejeweled com.popcap.ios.Bej3
  • Classic Bejeweled HDcom.popcap.ios.Bej3HD
  • FlipTheGun com.playgendary.flipgun
  • Fruit Ninja com.halfbrick.FruitNinjaLite
  • Golfmasters com.playgendary.sportmasterstwo
  • Letter Soup com.candywriter.apollo7
  • Love Nikki com.elex.nikki
  • My Emma com.crazylabs.myemma
  • Plants vs. Zombies™ Heroes com.ea.ios.pvzheroes
  • Pooking – Billiards City com.pool.club.billiards.city
  • PUBG Mobile com.tencent.ig
  • Tomb of the Mask com.happymagenta.fromcore
  • Tomb of the Mask: Color com.happymagenta.totm2
  • Total Party Kill com.adventureislands.totalpartykill
  • Watermarbling com.hydro.dipping

Social Networking


  • TikTok — com.zhiliaoapp.musically
  • ToTalk — totalk.gofeiyu.com
  • Tok — com.SimpleDate.Tok
  • Truecaller — com.truesoftware.TrueCallerOther
  • Viber — com.viber
  • Weibo — com.sina.weibo
  • Zoosk — com.zoosk.Zoosk

Other


  • 10% Happier: Meditation —com.changecollective.tenpercenthappier
  • 5-0 Radio Police Scanner — com.smartestapple.50radiofree
  • Accuweather — com.yourcompany.TestWithCustomTabs
  • AliExpress Shopping App — com.alibaba.iAliexpress
  • Bed Bath & Beyond — com.digby.bedbathbeyond
  • Dazn — com.dazn.theApp
  • Hotels.com — com.hotels.HotelsNearMe
  • Hotel Tonight — com.hoteltonight.prod
  • Overstock — com.overstock.app
  • Pigment – Adult Coloring Book — com.pixite.pigment
  • Recolor Coloring Book to Color — com.sumoing.ReColor
  • Sky Ticket — de.sky.skyonline
  • The Weather Network — com.theweathernetwork.weathereyeiphone

  • Exactly - it’s a major global scandal-not just TikTok.....
 
Theres a dating app Grindr that does the same thing. I stopped using it, the only way I knew it was pasting my data was it would say pasting data from clipboard for 27" iMac Pro... or pasting from iPad Pro 11"... I guess I outed myself.. with this one.. but this security feature will expose that app for the evil that it is and people will stop using those apps.. doubt it as people still sell their soul for free email COUGH COUGH GMAIL...

Wow, just having a cursory read through this thread three days later—that’s ****ing scary as far as Grindr goes. The app was literally designed by an Israeli man for gay men (and others in the LGBTQ+ community) to be able to communicate in a way so that incredibly homophobic governments and police forces couldn’t persecute them. Guess somewhere along the line, the privacy principle in general got thrown out the window.

Using technology in 2020 can get so depressing. I finally took a look at my 10-something-year-old FB profile’s “ad preferences” the other day. Can’t really write any of the words I wish I could to actually describe my disgust here.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Osxguy
It's not technology - it's people. If we have a global culture where people worship money, well this is a logical outcome...
 
‌iOS 14‌ is limited to developers at the current time, but Apple plans to release a public beta version next month ahead of the software's fall launch.
iOS 14 Public Beta certificate is online with same build like Dev Beta: 18A5301v.
 
Last edited:
Well, you say that, but up until now, it's been allowed to happen.

Well, feel free to switch to Banana jPhones. They have blocked ALL methods of privacy invasion, including government wiretapping, that are known at this time or will ever be invented in the future. These jPhones are so locked down, you can't see them, steal them, or touch them. They are so private you can't even hear your own phone calls and the people you call can't hear you. You can't read from their memory and they are impossible to hack. As an added bonus, you can't break them because they don't even exist in our reality.

Fortunately for you, I have a stash of these non-existent phones and can sell you a brand new one for only $999, with free shipping!

So, send $999 if you want one, or $1099 if you don't, and one will be astral projected to your doorstep overnight. How cool is that?

Look, Company A raises the bar for privacy, making it harder to track you. Some OTHER company doesn't like having their revenue stream cut so they come up with some OTHER slimy way to sell your info. Company A address that. Other company comes up with something else. The cycle continues.

Some things may be more difficult to fix than others. Some things may not be as dangerous as others at first, but gets worse. Every increase in security comes at a price.

Can you imagine how much faster the internet would be without Spam and crappy ads?
How many of your CPU cycles are dedicated to filtering out spam, protecting your privacy, and encryption?
How much easier would life be if we didn't need passwords?

But we have to put up with all of that.

So, if Apple can force Android's (and Microsoft's) hands to make them behave better, why would you complain unless you had a vested interest in Android, Microsoft, or slimy, privacy invading behavior?
 
I still don't understand this - apps are pasting from other apps? Unrelated apps? Can someone explain?

When you copy text or anything while in an app, it generally goes on the system pasteboard so it can be pasted into other apps.

But apps can read the contents of that pasteboard even if you don’t do ”paste” operation. Often this is used for legitimate reasons - for example, a shipping tracking app may detect, when you launch it, that you have copied a tracking number from a website, and offer to track it for you. Or an app may check to see if anything is there in order to decide whether or not to enable a “paste” button visually.

But apps like tik tok were checking it continuously, probably for nefarious reasons.
 
  • Like
Reactions: manu chao
AFAIK almost every Chinese app does that, Weibo, WeChat, TikTok, Taobao... It's really great iOS has all those features.

On the other hand, Android users in China have to bear all the privacy issues all the time. Some apps even ask for permission to monitor user's phone call and texts. What if someone chooses not to give those apps the permissions? THEY STOP WORKING AND QUIT! That's insane!

this feature needs to be refined though. It’s annoying to see so many events for one app per keystroke.

should these apps get refined, at which point would copying from the clip board be acceptable and how often? Furthermore is there a way to prevent an app access to the clipboard entirely within iOS 14’s settings?!
 
Exactly. They stress this every year, they openly talk about it, so you know they have to live up to their promises. Thank you Apple.

That’s why I happily pay the Apple tax. Yes their hardware is overpriced but when you factor in the operating system, the additional software Apple gives to its users, years worth of updates to the OS and to that additional software and add in their focus on privacy and it’s worth the money.

There is no such thing as free. You’re paying for the OS, the additional apps, the updates and that focus on privacy when you buy their products and services.

If your going with Google, Amazon or even Microsoft now with all the spyware built into Windows 10 you’re actively giving up your privacy for the free or lower priced items you’re buying from other vendors. Apple is the only vendor I trust in the privacy department knowing they are not perfect and will make some privacy missteps from time to time. Your data isn’t what Apple is selling. They are selling tightly integrated Hardware and software.
 
  • Like
Reactions: icanhazmac
Exactly why I stay with Apple. Privacy is something they truly care about; to their core.
On Android, one can block clipboard read and clipboard write and dozens of other actions PER APP. The old "AppOps" app still works; not sure why they don't promote it more.. perhaps because it's too dangerous for the common user.
 
So, whenever someone copy and pastes their password into an app, tiktok may have grabbed it. And they are trying to pass this off as a feature?
 
I wonder if they are going to include this in BigSur since desktop apps could be doing it as well.
 
Vine remained around for quite some time and died out on its own. It saw initial popularity but quickly dwindled and some time later Twitter killed it.
I think I remember either Twitter changing something or for another reason people being unhappy with the Twitter acquisition that eventually led to Vine's demise, but I can't say for sure.
 
i was reading somewhere and they had a list of apps and things:
after 11 or so pages in this thread i would think there might be a stronger list
keep in mind all this information is dated
worth noting thisis only someone's list, not mine, so dont shoot the messenger (me).

"
researchers found the following iOS apps were reading users’ clipboard data every time the app was opened with no clear reason for doing so:


  • App Name — BundleID

News


  • ABC News — com.abcnews.ABCNews
  • Al Jazeera English — ajenglishiphone
  • CBC News — ca.cbc.CBCNews
  • CBS News — com.H443NM7F8H.CBSNews
  • CNBC — com.nbcuni.cnbc.cnbcrtipad
  • Fox News — com.foxnews.foxnews
  • News Break — com.particlenews.newsbreak
  • New York Times — com.nytimes.NYTimes
  • NPR — org.npr.nprnews
  • ntv Nachrichten — de.n-tv.n-tvmobil
  • Reuters — com.thomsonreuters.Reuters
  • Russia Today — com.rt.RTNewsEnglish
  • Stern Nachrichten — de.grunerundjahr.sternneu
  • The Economist — com.economist.lamarr
  • The Huffington Post — com.huffingtonpost.HuffingtonPost
  • The Wall Street Journal — com.dowjones.WSJ.ipad
  • Vice News — com.vice.news.VICE-News

Games


  • 8 Ball Pool™ — com.miniclip.8ballpoolmult
  • AMAZE!!! com.amaze.game
  • Bejeweled com.ea.ios.bejeweledskies
  • Block PuzzleGame.BlockPuzzle
  • Classic Bejeweled com.popcap.ios.Bej3
  • Classic Bejeweled HDcom.popcap.ios.Bej3HD
  • FlipTheGun com.playgendary.flipgun
  • Fruit Ninja com.halfbrick.FruitNinjaLite
  • Golfmasters com.playgendary.sportmasterstwo
  • Letter Soup com.candywriter.apollo7
  • Love Nikki com.elex.nikki
  • My Emma com.crazylabs.myemma
  • Plants vs. Zombies™ Heroes com.ea.ios.pvzheroes
  • Pooking – Billiards City com.pool.club.billiards.city
  • PUBG Mobile com.tencent.ig
  • Tomb of the Mask com.happymagenta.fromcore
  • Tomb of the Mask: Color com.happymagenta.totm2
  • Total Party Kill com.adventureislands.totalpartykill
  • Watermarbling com.hydro.dipping

Social Networking


  • TikTok — com.zhiliaoapp.musically
  • ToTalk — totalk.gofeiyu.com
  • Tok — com.SimpleDate.Tok
  • Truecaller — com.truesoftware.TrueCallerOther
  • Viber — com.viber
  • Weibo — com.sina.weibo
  • Zoosk — com.zoosk.Zoosk

Other


  • 10% Happier: Meditation —com.changecollective.tenpercenthappier
  • 5-0 Radio Police Scanner — com.smartestapple.50radiofree
  • Accuweather — com.yourcompany.TestWithCustomTabs
  • AliExpress Shopping App — com.alibaba.iAliexpress
  • Bed Bath & Beyond — com.digby.bedbathbeyond
  • Dazn — com.dazn.theApp
  • Hotels.com — com.hotels.HotelsNearMe
  • Hotel Tonight — com.hoteltonight.prod
  • Overstock — com.overstock.app
  • Pigment – Adult Coloring Book — com.pixite.pigment
  • Recolor Coloring Book to Color — com.sumoing.ReColor
  • Sky Ticket — de.sky.skyonline
  • The Weather Network — com.theweathernetwork.weathereyeiphone
"
Which of these apps need Background App Refresh? Only for which BAR is enabled I would worry about (plus: get into the habit of clearing the clipboard after copying sensitive data like passwords.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.