LinkedIn says its iOS app is copying the contents of users' clipboards after every key press due to a bug and promises a fix, after iOS 14 reveals the snooping
The new clipboard access detection and warning feature in iOS 14 exposes another app. — A LinkedIn spokesperson told ZDNet yesterday …
ZDNetCatalin Cimpanu
Context & Ripple Effects
iOS 14's new clipboard-access warning is doing what Apple never shipped before: surfacing, in real time, when apps read data users thought was private. Within days it caught TikTok, which said it would stop clipboard snooping — and now LinkedIn, which confirms its app copies the clipboard after every key press and calls it a bug.
The disclosures land on a pile of prior evidence: researchers flagged TikTok and 55 other apps for the same practice back in March and found most were still doing it, while Apple had already been patching a related hole where third-party keyboards gained "full access" by mistake on iOS 13. The pattern is that Apple is converting silent OS-level data access into visible events, forcing every major app maker to explain itself in public.
First-order effects
LinkedIn must ship a fix for an iOS app that copied clipboard contents after every key press, and do so under the reputational spotlight TikTok just vacated — each public explanation normalizes 'bug' as the default defense.
Second-order effects
With researchers reporting most of the 55+ apps they identified still reading clipboards, every remaining app in that cohort faces exposure the moment iOS 14 ships broadly; competitors' responses are now reactive damage control rather than proactive disclosure.
Developers lose the ability to rely on undocumented telemetry like clipboard reads for spam or paste detection, pushing them toward APIs Apple sanctions — shifting engineering effort toward the platform's sanctioned surface.
Third-order effects
If the pattern holds, OS vendors become de facto privacy auditors: runtime permission warnings replace self-reported app behavior, and 'it was a bug' becomes the standard first response before regulation or store-policy enforcement catches up.
The trend: Mobile platforms are shifting from trusting developers to surveilling them, using OS-level visibility like iOS 14's clipboard warnings to force disclosure of data practices apps kept silent.
@DonCubed Hi @DonCubed. Appreciate you raising this. 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.
LinkedIn is copying the contents of my clipboard every keystroke. IOS 14 allows users to see each paste notification. I'm on an IPad Pro and it's copying from the clipboard of my MacBook Pro. Tik tok just got called out for this exact reason. https://twitter.com/...
@johnny_xx 1. I know. But there are only so many characters in a tweet. :) 2. Abusing a feature doesn't mean removing the feature. That hurts us as much as them. I like Apple naming and shaming the abusers. Feels like a better remedy. Same as BT last year. Battery a few years ago…
Someone once tweeted that they thought the only reason LinkedIn isn't torn a new one in terms of security/privacy is because no one gives a shit about the platform as it's just a congregation of nobheads. No basis in fact at all but I like to believe it. https://twitter.com/...
Cut them a break. They're using any means necessary to figure out what actual, normal humans say instead of “I'd like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn.” https://twitter.com/...
I seriously question this is a “bug.” I'd guess the only bug here is that they were caught 😁 “Oh no, I accidentally wrote a bunch of code that reads from your clipboard all the time!” https://www.zdnet.com/...