After TikTok and LinkedIn, Reddit caught snooping on iOS clipboard

An iOS 14 beta user recently found the LinkedIn app snooping on the iOS clipboard. The same developer has now spotted a similar snooping activity by the Reddit app. The company has acknowledged the issue and has assured a fix.

In iOS 14, Apple has ramped up its privacy measures by introducing a banner-like notification that alerts a user when an app appears to be pasting from the clipboard. Early developer users have been appreciating Apple for highlighting snooping practices by several apps without taking any user consent.

With the help of the same feature, Donald Morton found Reddit snooping on the iOS clipboard and copying each keystroke.

Reddit acknowledged the issue and told The Verge a fix is releasing on July 14. “We tracked this down to a code path in the post composer that checks for URLs in the pasteboard and then suggests a post title based on the text contents of the URL. We do not store or send the pasteboard contents. We removed this code and are releasing the fix on July 14th,” the email statement read.

The same user, previously, was able to catch hold of LinkedIn copying contents from his MacBook Pro while he was accessing the app on his iPad Pro. This was possible because of Apple’s Universal Clipboard, a feature that allows users with multiple Apple devices to copy and paste content from one device to another. The company’s executive stated that a patch will be issued soon.

TikTok, which is now banned in India, was also spotted snooping on the iOS clipboard. The company later told Apple that it will stop accessing the clipboard contents.