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Some of these comments are a little on the racist side..

Look, yes TikTok is a Chinese company and they need to be held to the same standard. Not a single complaint about Starbucks or TripIt?

How about fair condemnation across the board?
Civilization is a very thin veneer and bubbling away underneath is xenophobic tendencies that can easily metastasize when times are bad. Three-quarters of whites in the US don't have any non-white friends. Just think about that.
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I hope so. The clipboard has always been a concern for me. So many people copy sensitive information to the clipboard.
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This is not being blown out of proportion. The user needs control over what apps can access the clipboard.

That's exactly what I said.
 
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Great features. I don't use such sneaky apps - I guess... I hope... - but I do copy/paste a lot of my passwords from 1Password... I may have to find another way till iOS 14 T_T
 
One question I have is why do apps have access to the clipboard AT ALL?
The one legit use I've seen is for package tracking apps like UPS, FedEx, and Deliveries, which can say things like, "it looks like there's a UPS package tracking ID on your clipboard, would you like to track it?", but even that is just a convenience, not really necessary.
 
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Yeah, as much as I hate to say it, maybe this should be yet another pop up to allow apps to read the clipboard. Or maybe just disable it entirely. The only app I can think of that uses this legitimately is Deliveries, which after you’ve copied a tracking number and open the app, senses you have a tracking code in your clipboard and prompts you to create a new delivery based on it and figures out what carrier it is.
 
I require access to the clipboard, because that is often the most logical and expedient way to pass data between apps and documents.

If that's the only practical way of achieving data transfer, then that implies that the available APIs are flawed. Is there not a key-value store that apps can use to share data? An app should not be able to snoop into what could well be private information that the end user assumes to be safe. Your app's functionality should not come at the expense of user's data security.

One strategy around this could be for clipboard peeking, e.g. providing an API where applications can check for specific types of data, e.g. URL, 10-digit string, etc., and then having the operating system prompt the user: "AppName would like to copy the tracking ID from your clipboard. Accept/Deny". Limitations could be in place to prevent an app trying checks that were too specific or peeking too frequently. That would provide both something the user can understand while providing security to the clipboard content.
 
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.

Developer here, we need access cause things like copy paste can mean anything. Your clipboard might be a file, picture or video. Not just simple text. So we have to program how to accept those formats. It’s probably why apple now added the banner aboutthe clipboard. Also to note, there are two types of clipboards. A global one and app specific one. App specific one allows things like erasing after pasting. Kind of like one password.
 
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Eh, I'd more quickly pin it on lazy app devs. Good that iOS watches for this, though.
Then you’re naive.
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It's actually a feature. For example, Chrome accesses your clipboard before you paste a link to save you the trouble of having to one tap the screen. Granted, developers should let you know and allow you to turn the feature off but let's not blow this thing out of proportion and think any access to your clipboard is solely meant to invade your privacy.

Let not blow this thing out of proportion? Do you know what people usually copy to clipboard? Their passwords.
Just because you trust Chrome, it’s fine? Chrome is a major part of the problem. I remember the 1st time I used it years ago and I’m astounded that there were still some parts of it running on my PC even though I explicitly exited the app.
 
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Then you’re naive.
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Let not blow this thing out of proportion? Do you know what people usually copy to clipboard? Their passwords.
Just because you trust Chrome, it’s fine? Chrome is a major part of the problem. I remember the 1st time I used it years ago and I’m astounded that there were still some parts of it running on my PC even though I explicitly exited the app.
You know, you give privacy-aware people a bad name with that kind of attitude. If you want to prove something, go snoop the traffic coming from the app and see if it includes your pasteboard. Easy to do given the right basic tools, and if they still use plain HTTP like reported before (lol), you don't even need to bother with a spoofed root certificate.

I write apps. Sometimes I avoid laziness but can feel its tug. This is the kind of behavior someone would add out of laziness. This is the same app that didn't even bother with HTTPS, and that's an egregious corner to cut.
 
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Some of these comments are a little on the racist side..

Look, yes TikTok is a Chinese company and they need to be held to the same standard. Not a single complaint about Starbucks or TripIt?

How about fair condemnation across the board?
They're against the Chinese government, not the Chinese people, and certainly not against people of Chinese origin.
 
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If someone is stupid enough to use tiktok they deserve to have their data stolen.
 
No app on any OS has any business accessing the clipboard, unless the user takes the action to paste to the app. Apple needs to implement security controls that allow the user to control this, like it does with location data.
 
Wow, this is genuinely shocking. I would not have believed all these new security features were necessary without seeing how rampant this kind of behaviour is.
 
To all the racists here, let me blow your minds:

MOST of the software you use are written by Chinese and Indian developers.

How do I know? Walk down facebook HQ, I've visited the campuses. It's masses of yellow and brown faces. Yet in all the media reveals like WWDC and FB, it's all white. Hmm interesting.

I work in IT, and 60% of the devs are Indian and the rest are Chinese, powered by 4-5 white managers.
Slow your roll on the racist accusations. No one is blaming Chinese people. It's the Chinese Government that is in the crosshairs.
 
You know, you give privacy-aware people a bad name with that kind of attitude. If you want to prove something, go snoop the traffic coming from the app and see if it includes your pasteboard. Easy to do given the right basic tools, and if they still use plain HTTP like reported before (lol), you don't even need to bother with a spoofed root certificate.

I write apps. Sometimes I avoid laziness but can feel its tug. This is the kind of behavior someone would add out of laziness. This is the same app that didn't even bother with HTTPS, and that's an egregious corner to cut.

Like I said, naive.
Just because you’re lazy doesn’t mean everyone is.

And in case you haven’t noticed, they themself said it’s “the feature” for spam protection lol.
 
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How many apps will be busted with the orange dot? That’s what I’m curious about.
Chances are not many, aside from the ones that were given access and are using it when needed depending on functionality.

Ultimately the difference is that microphone and camera access require approval and can be controlled.
 
Google's seemed to see this issue as well. Google's Android does this by restricting access to clipboard data to input method editors (AKA keyboards). Foreground apps that have focus will also be able to access the clipboard, but background apps won't.
 
I have a few app on the app store and when I first started I put google analytics in them. It was fascinating seeing which countries and local areas people were using my apps, especially in real time. After about a month the novelty wore off. A few years later when the privacy thing amped up a bit I just stripped it all out. There is no real reason to collect this data especially at the cost of losing customers that may think their data is somehow being sold on.
 
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Oh. You must have missed when China infiltrated our the Department of Energy, along with a handful of other government entities, along with 1 in 5 major US companies, like Tesla and Apple. It's as if, you think, there is no logical basis to give this criticism compared to american companies.

We are in a espionage war with China

Oh please. Germany caught US spys with the pants down spying on German companies. Everybody spies on everybody. Don’t be naive.
 
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