LinkedIn is Getting Sued After Its App Is Found Reading Clipboard Data in iOS
It must be said that mobile operating systems try very hard to let us know what an app does in the background. Every time you install an application, you are giving it a list of permissions that is clearly displayed in both Android and iOS. Unfortunately, many users don't seem to care about these things, and they just repeatedly tap the OK button in order to go through the installation process as quickly as possible. Because people ignore this vital information so much, software vendors are forced to look for even more obvious ways of displaying it. As a result of this, we get new features, and we sometimes learn new and worrying things about the applications we use every day.
Apple, for example, decided to implement a new feature in iOS 14 that will tell users when an app is accessing the device's clipboard. iOS 14 isn't due to be released until the fall, but last month, Apple launched a beta version that iPhone and iPad users can try out, which means that people are already seeing the new feature in action.
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LinkedIn reads iOS devices’ clipboards
LinkedIn users who decided to give iOS 14 a try were in for a nasty surprise. When they installed the new operating system, they saw that every time they entered anything into a text box, the professional network would interact with the device's clipboard, regardless of the application that was in use at the time. There are numerous legitimate reasons why an app might read or even copy data from the clipboard, but in this case, there didn't appear to be one. Pretty soon, videos of the popups appear on social media, and people started speculating what might be the logic behind the odd behavior.
Some thought that this is a bug in Apple's new feature, and, given that it is still in beta, this didn't sound like an unreasonable explanation. Eventually, however, LinkedIn admitted that the fault isn't with iOS. First, Erran Berger, LinkedIn's VP of Engineering announced on Twitter that the app is making equality checks between the contents of the clipboard and the text that is currently entered, and a spokesperson confirmed to ZDNet that the bug will be fixed in the near future.
A LinkedIn user will sue the social network
LinkedIn is adamant that no clipboard data is copied or transmitted, but this hasn't stopped the speculation that the functionality enabled the Microsoft-owned social media to learn more about its users and target them with ads. Whether this is the case or not is difficult to say at this point. What is certain is that the behavior can be considered creepy because sensitive information like passwords, private messages, and bank account information can often be found in the clipboard.
A LinkedIn user thinks that the social network shouldn't have access to that data, and they apparently hope that the court will agree with them. According to a report from The Washington Times, the said user has filed a lawsuit against LinkedIn in the Northern District of California.
It's not clear how the whole thing will unravel, but we should say that LinkedIn officials might not be the only ones picking up their phones and calling their lawyers.
LinkedIn is far from the only offender
iOS 14 Beta's release has caused quite a stir. Shortly after it came out, users started seeing popups about various different applications reading their clipboards, and this has predictably caused some privacy concerns. According to The Washington Times, researchers have identified no fewer than 50 apps that display this behavior, including the immensely popular video sharing platform TikTok and Reddit.
Red-faced developers have attributed this behavior on anything from unknown bugs to anti-fraud mechanisms, and they all say that upcoming updates will fix the issues. This won't stop people from wondering how and when the said bugs appeared, why they weren't discovered until Apple's new privacy feature, and whether the same functionality can be seen in the applications for Android.
For now, these questions remain unanswered.
