If you haven’t been playing with TikTok, try to ask one of Gen Z’ers and they will tell you that TikTok is a completely new culture. But now, it’s time to pay serious attention to TikTok as they secretly snooping your device.
You are not alone as we often store text, images or copy-and-paste content to the clipboard. The clipboard is an essential part of the computing system, but it can be vulnerable as apps could snoop on private clipboard contents. Passwords, address, and anything else in the clipboards are now free for taking.
The Apple iOS 14 new privacy feature reveals that TikTok is reading iPhone clipboard without permission from the user. The privacy invasion is by none other than TikTok, and some other apps repeatedly reading all the texts that reside in the clipboard. It is a place that devices store data that has been copied-and-pasted. There are legitimate reasons for us to access the clipboard, but now iOS 14 will alert you with ‘paste’ warnings when an app accesses your clipboard.
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
It’s all about universal snooping
The universal snooping feature in Apple is an acute issue with vulnerability. It means anything you copy on a Mac computer or iPad can be read on an iPhone, or vice versa. It allows users to share text, images and videos content from one Apple device to another. So, if your Tiktok is active, the app basically read everything you copy on another device, including passwords, email message or financial statement. That’s anything.
It is true that TikTok, a social media that own by Chinese company poses a security threat and user’s data may be shared with China. After several media outlets provided coverage that put TikTok in the headlines for security issues, they have promised to stop this practice. However, the security fears are still relevant as TikTok was found to still be accessing the clipboard data.
“For TikTok, this was triggered by a feature designed to identify repetitive, spammy behavior. We have already submitted an updated version of the app to the App Store removing the anti-spam feature to eliminate any potential confusion,” TikTok’s spokesperson told The Telegraph.
Indeed, it is not saying to worry about digital security and be afraid of your daily use. We are all working to maximise our online safety. In any case, it’s worth being aware of your personal information and how you copy the sensitive data, particularly if you spend hours mindlessly scrolling through TikTok.
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