LinkedIn and Reddit remove app code that copies user clipboards

LinkedIn and Reddit will remove code in their apps that copies users’ clipboard information after being outed by an iOS 14 privacy feature

  • Reddit and LinkedIn are changing code in their apps that copy users’ clipboards
  • The practices was brought to light by an iOS 14 privacy feature
  • Reddit says it used information to auto-suggest titles for URLs
  • LinkedIn said that it was making sure URLs matched information being typed 

Reddit and LinkedIn will change code in their apps that automatically copy clipboard information stored on people’s phones after Apple’s iOS update sheds light on the practice.

Reddit, which is the most recent high-profile app to address the practice said that it was using information to suggest a post title based on the contents of a URL.

Its app was exposed by a beta version of Apple’s iOS 14 which notifies users when their clipboards are being copy and asks for permission.

Reddit’s app was reportedly causing beta users to receive notifications after every keystroke.

Reddit said that it does not store or send the contents of clipboards. 

‘We tracked this down to a codepath 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,’ a Reddit spokesperson told The Verge. 

‘We do not store or send the pasteboard contents. We removed this code and are releasing the fix on July 14th.’

Along with Reddit, LinkedIn was also found copying clipboard contents of iOS users. 

According to Erran Berger, vice president of Engineering and Consumer Products at LinkedIn, the professional networking service was performing ‘equality checks’ to see if a link corresponded to what a user was typing.

It didn’t elaborate on what the purpose of that feature is. 

Reddit is now among the apps being recorded by an iOS 14 privacy feature for copying information in users’ clipboards (stock) 

‘…We’ve traced this to a code path that only does an equality check between the clipboard contents and the currently typed content in a text box. We don’t store or transmit the clipboard contents,’ wrote Berger in a tweet.

Revelations about Reddit and LinkedIn follow similar instances relating to the social media giant, TikTok, which was found accessing clipboard information last week. 

The company said it will discontinue that practice and said that its feature was and ‘anti-spam’ measure.