As few of the people have pointed out, LinkedIn is using the iOS clipboard to copy content from it. This practice is deemed as an invasion of privacy, which is being shoved off by LinkedIn by saying that it is a bug. TikTok was also doing the same thing where it was also called out.
After the allegations, LinkedIn has reportedly planned to stop the app from accessing the clipboard. According to the engineering at LinkedIn, they were using the clipboard to copy contents from it for the verification and performing an “equality check” to verify what the user is typing and what was in their clipboard. Erran Berger, the VP engineer at LinkedIn, said that they didn’t store the contents of the clipboard anywhere via his Twitter.
Thanks to the new iOS 14 that enables the feature of notifying the users when an app is copying something from their device. Although iOS 14 is still in its beta testing phase, it has produced many developments that helped in discovering this copying method. In addition to that, the new iOS will also notify you when an app uses your camera or microphone, which is another great step towards privacy safety. Not only LinkedIn, but it has enabled very suspicious behavior from many apps.
Since the issue was posted online, LinkedIn has responded that they will be fixing this “bug” and will post a follow-up once the issue has been fixed. The iOS 14 rolls out in the fall of 2020.
