• iOS 14.All new features of the Apple operating system
  • Larry Tesler. Goodbye to the computer scientist who gave us the "shortcut"
  • Networks.Manual to understand what TikTok is and why your children are hooked

Apple barely paid any attention to it during the opening speech at the recent WWDC developer fair, but one of the new features in the upcoming iOS version, iOS14, threatens to uncover one of the most controversial practices in the development industry and ruin reputation. from many developers.

The new version of the operating system for iPhone phones and iPad tablets includes an alert system that communicates to the user when an app is copying the contents of the clipboard , the temporary memory that stores a text or an image when we click on 'cut' or 'copy' and then paste the information elsewhere.

This memory is accessible for applications, obviously. After all, they have to be able to read the content if the user needs to paste it. But the frequency with which they do it indicates that in many cases they could be abusing the privilege to discover personal information of the user.

Now that the beta version of the iOS 14 operating system is available to developers (the public beta will be available this month and the final version will arrive in the fall), many have noticed the excessive frequency with which some applications consult this memory.

At least four very popular app developers have had to acknowledge it in the past few days. In some cases they have been justified by indicating that it was a failure in their apps or a function aimed at improving the experience of using them, but, in general, the number of incidents paints a worrying picture for security, a problem that until now most of us were unaware.

Google, for example, accesses the clipboard every time the user runs or returns to the Chrome browser app. It does this to check if it has a URL (a web address) or an image stored in memory and thus offer the quick loading of the same or the reverse search of the image in Google Images.

TikTok is another one of the apps that you access too often. The company ByteDance, the company behind the popular social network, has assured that access to the clipboard is a tactic to combat spam , but that it will stop doing so in future versions of the app.

The professional platform LinkedIn also sins of looking too much in this memory. Virtually every time the user types any letter while using the app. Those responsible for the application have explained that this is a bug in the code of the application and that the next version will correct it. "We do not store or transmit the contents of the clipboard," said Erran Berger, vice president of Consumer Product Engineering at LinkedIn.

Reddit has been the last great app hunted looking at the clipboard. According to the company, this is an error similar to that of LinkedIn. The app searches the memory every time the user writes in case they are trying to write a web address that has already been copied into it. "We do not store or send the contents of the clipboard in any case and we will correct the app in the next update on July 14," said those responsible for the company.

The excuse for programming error may sound weak, but it is likely to be true in many cases. Until now, these types of failures simply went unnoticed because the operating system did not offer any type of alert or error message. Two security researchers, Talal Haj Bakry and Tommy Mysk, raised the alarm about this phenomenon last March.

Still, it is possible that for other applications this constant consultation to the clipboard is a way to get more personal information from users , especially since both iPhone, iPad and Mac use a shared clipboard system. If a user is registered with their Apple account on multiple devices, they can cut information on a Mac, for example, and paste it on their iPhone.

Since the clipboard can contain sensitive information, such as passwords or bank accounts, it can become an effective attack vector for malicious apps, hence Apple is drawing attention to this behavior through a notification on the screen.

The avalanche of notifications can be too overwhelming as it is implemented right now but when iOS 14 is on the market it will not be so serious. A new function within the operating system will allow third-party applications to know what is stored in this memory without having to copy its content, as is currently the case, and in a way that respects the user's privacy.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

Know more

  • iPhone

WWDCLatest Apple conference: remote and with many developers on the warpath

Technology iOS 14: all the news of the Apple operating system

TrucosWhatsApp: this way you can program messages to send themselves at the time you want

See links of interest

  • Last News
  • TV programming
  • English translator
  • Work calendar
  • Daily horoscope
  • Santander League Ranking
  • League calendar
  • TV Movies
  • Themes
  • Levante - Real Sociedad
  • Tottenham Hotspur - Everton
  • Seville - Eibar