iPhone users recently found that TikTok was recording what they were typing on their phones, ranging from non-sensitive information to passwords and even sensitive emails, from TikTok accounts in India and around the world.
The whole issue revolves around iOS’ clipboard function which lets a user copy text/ image and pastes it on another app. The clipboard can also be used to copy-paste text and images from one Apple device to another Apple device, like from an iPhone to an iPad or Mac computer.
Apple software designed is in such a way that, any app was able to record all text and images that were copy-pasted via the clipboard function. There would be no warning or notice to the user that a particular app is recording information the user was copying via the clipboard function.
TikTok on an iPhone can read anything and everything one copies on another device like passwords, financial information, work documents, sensitive emails, etc.
Now, Apple has released a beta version of the upcoming iOS 14 software. The beta version alerts a user whenever an app copies what the user has pasted on the clipboard.
In April TikTok claimed that it would stop the ‘invasive practice’, but users testing Apple’s upcoming iOS 14 have caught it copying from clipboard functions.
Source: Business Today