Mobile
A new security feature in the future version of Apple’s mobile system highlights a controversial practice used by many apps.
The TikTok app has more than 800 million monthly active users.
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Users of the beta version of iOS 14, the next major update to Apple’s mobile system, were indignant at seeing a security alert appear regularly on their smartphones. Linked to a novelty supposed to protect user privacy and provide more transparency, it indicates that the popular app of short TikTok videos, but also other services, accesses the latest content copied to the clipboard. This can be particularly annoying if the copied text is sensitive and confidential.
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Pinned by iOS 14, ByteDance, Chinese publisher of the popular video platform, has not kept its word, denounces a journalist from «Telegraph». Last March, the firm had indeed promised the British daily to stop access to the clipboard without the knowledge of users “within a few weeks”.
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It will now be done. A TikTok spokesperson told “Telegraph” that an update removing the clipboard observation has already been submitted to the App Store “in order to eliminate any potential confusion”. He explains that access to the clipboard was linked to “a function designed to identify repetitive spam behavior”.
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TikTok, which has raised many privacy concerns, says it is “committed to protecting user privacy and being transparent about how the app works”. However, the company has not indicated for how long the feature has been active, or if the change will also affect its Android app.
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In early March, developers Talal Haj Bakry and Tommy Mysk revealed that many apps intercept temporarily copied and pasted content to the clipboard.
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