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 …
Now LinkedIn becomes the highest-profile name to be caught red-handed by the same indicator: its spokesperson admits the iOS app copies the clipboard after every single key press and calls it a bug, promising a fix. The pattern from the TikTok episode suggests these disclosures arrive only when the OS forces them into the open.
First-order effects
LinkedIn users on the iOS 14 beta can see their clipboard contents being read after each keystroke, and LinkedIn is now publicly committed to shipping a fix for an access pattern it previously made no announcement about.
The disclosure hands Apple's clipboard warning feature its clearest demonstration yet, validating the beta flag as a tool that surfaces real app behavior rather than noise.
Second-order effects
Every other app on the researchers' list of clipboard readers faces the same exposure risk as the iOS 14 rollout widens, giving them an incentive to quietly strip clipboard access before they are named next.
App developers lose the ability to treat clipboard reads as invisible telemetry: each warning pop-up now converts a silent data practice into a user-facing trust event that competitors like TikTok have already had to answer for.
Third-order effects
If the pattern holds, OS vendors become de facto privacy auditors — platform-level indicators force disclosure where no regulator or researcher could, shifting the burden onto app makers to justify every sensitive permission or wear the 'bug' label in public.
This extends Apple's earlier keyboard-access problems — the company spent 2019 fixing an iOS 13 bug that granted third-party keyboards full access unintentionally — into a broader regime where access to user data is visible per-use rather than granted silently at install time.
The trend: Mobile OSes are converting invisible data collection into per-use on-screen disclosures, forcing major app publishers to publicly rebrand long-standing behaviors as bugs.
@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/...
Reddit has responded! They said the clipboard is being looked at to check for URLs. If there is a URL - Reddit will suggest a post title. The fix to remove the code accessing the clipboard is going live on July 14th 🙏 https://www.theverge.com/...
Never once thought I'd have to worry about Apple letting a private key I copy on my MacBook be exposed to apps on my iPhone. TF are they thinking over there? I thought Apple was all about security and privacy? https://twitter.com/...
Actually this is a great way to deal with privacy issues on apps and websites: transparency. Because privacy is about trust. That's better than removing features for everyone with the excuse of protecting the users. 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/...