Among all the cool and amazing hidden iOS 14 features, Apple also added a neat privacy feature that sends a notification whenever an application accesses your clipboard. Following the privacy concerns of iOS users, TikTok has said it will make changes in the application to stop this action.
A TikTok spokesperson claims that the app was accessing clipboard to identify spammy behavior, in a statement to The Telegraph. The company, however, says it has removed the feature in the latest version of the app.
A TikTok spokesperson told Telegraph, “For TikTok, this was triggered by a feature designed to identify spammy and repetitive behavior. We have already presented an updated version of the application to the App Store removing the anti-spam feature to reduce any potential confusion,”
TikTok didn’t show if the application ever sent clipboard data to its servers. The company also didn’t explain the situation of this feature on Android devices. However, if you’re a TikTok user with an iPhone, you should consider updating it to the latest version when it rolls out on the App Store.
In case you’re out of the loop, iOS developers Tommy Mysk and Talal Haj Bakry discovered this situation earlier this March. The developers notified how several applications were able to access the clipboard without the explicit consent of users.
While TikTok says to have settled the issue, we haven’t heard from other application makers accessing the clipboard just yet. Other popular iOS applications reading clipboard include Reuters, The Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Weibo, 8 Ball Pool, Call of Duty, and PUBG Mobile, to name a few.
We could expect mainstream iOS applications to follow TikTok’s suit and eliminate such intrusive clipboard access, all thanks to Apple’s enhanced privacy features introduced with iOS 14.
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