When we copy a text to paste it later, the text in question goes to a place called the clipboard. It is like temporary memory in which we can leave things to use them shortly after. The mobile also has this memory, and it turns out that there are many apps that have permissions to read what we put there without our permission.
At first it was denounced the fact that TikTok, the worst enemy of privacy (although Facebook is not far behind), was able to read the clipboard, but it turns out that it is not the only app that does.
A new feature in iOS 14 will alert users when an application accesses their phone’s clipboard, and apparently, it happens ALL the time, as lifehacker comments in this video:
A new feature in iOS 14 alerts users when an app accesses their phone’s clipboardand apparently, it happens ALL the time. pic.twitter.com/DLukBlP9sX
– Lifehacker (@lifehacker) July 2, 2020
In the video they comment that it is normal for an app to read the clipboard at some point. If we go to the Chrome browser, for example, and we want to paste a url in the address bar, Chrome will need to read it. But in the tests it has been seen how sometimes this access is constant and for no apparent reason. It is seen, for example, how TikTok constantly accesses the clipboard while we use the app.
Logically, it is one thing to read the clipboard, where we may have copied a password, for example, and another thing is to use that content to perform some negative action, but still, it is important that apps only access sensitive content when it is necessary. absolutely necessary, and always with the consent of the users.
The risk is clear: we copy the number of our bank card to put it in an online store, then we open a news app and… Choff…. the app has managed to read our bank card, and we don’t know what to do with it, hopefully nothing …
