TikTok, the popular short video app, known primarily to the younger user segment, has been plagued by a new scandal caused by its app’s behavior on mobile devices.
In this regard, one of the new privacy features introduced in the new version of iOS, iOS 14, which is currently in the preview phase for developers, alerts users when applications access the content of the device clipboard.
This new privacy feature has revealed that there are not a few applications that read clipboard content on devices, but that in the case of TikTok it is more striking because of the frequency with which it does so, resulting in users receiving constant notifications.
In fact, the founder of Emojipedia, Jeremy Burge, publicly witnessed this through a video posted on his Twitter account:
Okay so TikTok is grabbing the contents of my clipboard every 1-3 keystrokes. iOS 14 is snitching on it with the new paste notification pic.twitter.com/OSXP43t5SZ
– Jeremy Burge (@jeremyburge) June 24, 2020
TikTok defends itself and points out, in statements to The Telegraph, that your application was not collecting clipboard information and that this behavior is part of your repetitive spam identification system.
Even so, and to avoid future misunderstandings, the company has made changes to its application for iOS in which, in its new version, already sent to the App Store, it will no longer automatically access the clipboard of the device.
They argue:
For TikTok, this was triggered by a feature designed to identify repetitive and unwanted behaviors. We have already sent an updated version of the application to the App Store removing the antispam function to eliminate any possible confusion
Finally, they add that:
TikTok is committed to protecting user privacy and being transparent about how our application works.
It is likely that some of the other applications found, including some from Google, may have a more than justified reason. So far, no other developer has wanted to step out.
