Reddit says it will release a solution for a code snippet that copied the content from users’ clipboards. Users in a beta version of iOS 14, which sends an alert when an app tries to copy the information from the clipboard, reported receiving the alerts with every keystroke in the Reddit iOS app.
“We trace this back to a code path in the post composer that checks the URLs on the dashboard and then suggests a post title based on the content of the URL text,” a Reddit spokesperson wrote in an email to The edge. “We do not store or ship the contents of the carton. We removed this code and released the fix on July 14. “
UPDATE: It seems like Reddit is also capturing the clipboard on every keystroke
See the notification appears the same. pic.twitter.com/nzbElmRG2a
– Don urspace.io (@DonCubed) July 2, 2020
The privacy feature in iOS 14, which is still in a limited beta version for developers, has revealed several applications that are involved in copying the clipboard in recent weeks. LinkedIn said Friday it would stop the practice, explaining that its app was doing it to perform a “equality check” between what a user is typing and what’s on their clipboard. “We do not store or transmit the contents of the clipboard,” LinkedIn Vice President of Engineering Erran Berger wrote on Twitter. The company did not explain why the practice was in place to start.
TikTok, which has faced criticism for privacy concerns in its app in the past, was called for similar behavior when copying the clipboard last week. The company said the practice was part of an “antispam” function and that it was being discontinued.
A public beta version of iOS 14 is expected in the coming weeks, and the clipboard’s privacy feature is likely to reveal more apps involved in this questionable behavior.
