Clipboard Notification in iOS 14 / iPadOS 14 – App pasted from another app

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stealth
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Clipboard notification in iOS it is a security measure for confidential data that the user can have saved in the clipboard. Users are warned every time the text they copied is sent to another application. Paste.

Before we detail this characteristic of iOS and see how important it is for the protection of the owners of iPhone, let's see a little what clipboard means.

What does clipboard mean and what does it help us with?

The clipboard is a kind of invisible storage medium, in which there are fragments of text, images or files saved by the user in order to "paste" (paste) in another location. When we copy a text from the site by order (copy) and we want to transfer it to a document (paste), this would not be possible without clipboard. The data present in the clipboard is usually saved in RAM and most of the time it is not stored after restarting the device.
Clipboard is present on all operating systems that offer "copy & paste" options. Linux Windows, iOSAndroid, macOS and others.
In short, the clipboard means the data from "Copy & Paste".

How some applications use the data saved in the clipboard

On the subject of confidentiality data stored in the clipboard there have been discussions over time. Many have accused various software companies of producing applications capable of reading user-saved data on the clipboard when accessing an application.

A clear example are web browsers (Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Safari, Firefox) which, when we have saved a URL (web address), directly offers us the option of "Paste and Go”In the address bar. Or "Paste and Search”When text is present on the clipboard.
This would not be possible if the browser could not see what we have saved on the clipboard.
There is no panic if this data is saved in a proactive way to improve the user experience. Clipboard notification in iOS is still a welcome measure for data security.

Clipboard notification in iOS 14 and iPadOS 14

With the launch iOS 14 si iPadOS 14, Apple introduced a banner notification system in the upper part of the screen, through which the user is notified that the data saved on the clipboard have been "pasted" in the accessed application. In this way, the user will know every time an application on the iPhone or iPad reads the clipboard of the idevice. A clear example is the Facebook application, which reads data from the clipboard only when the user wants to give "paste” of a text.

Clipboard notification in iOS – “Facebook pasted from Safari".

Clipboard notification in iOS
Facebook pasted from Safari

However, there are also applications where the clipboard notification in iOS indicates that the application has read the data from the clipboard without our consent. Without us giving "paste" to the copied data.

Regarding eMAG application for iOS and iPadOS, I say without any hesitation, that until iOS 14 it was still "spying" on users' clipboard data. After installing iOS 14, every time we access the eMAG application, the notification "eMAG pasted from… ”.

As can be seen in the screenshot below, the application eMAG automatically copies data saved to the clipboard from a tokenization application.

Clipboard notification in eMAG
Clipboard notification in eMAG

In this way, including token codes, passwords or other text fragments that the user did not want to "paste" in the search bar of the application could be retrieved.
With version 3.0.1 of the eMAG application for iOS, this practice was withdrawn, reading the data from the clipboard being sent to the application only when the user wants.

It was known that some advertising networks constantly spy on the user's clipboard. With iOS 14 the user will be notified about this, even if many are a little annoyed by it notification that cannot be disabled.

When should we worry about the "App pasted from App" notification?

When you meet the scenario practiced in the past by eMAG. If the notification appears automatically when you access an application or a website, without you "pasting" in that application.

This characteristic of iOS 14 is present along with other new privacy controls introduced by Apple to protect the privacy of iPhone and iPad users.

I am happy to share my experiences in the field of computers, mobile phones and operating systems, to develop web projects and to bring the most useful tutorials and advice. I like to "play" on the iPhone, MacBook Pro, iPad, AirPort Extreme and on operating systems macOS, iOS, Android and Windows.

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  1. Pingback: eMAG spied on iPhone / iPad users clipboard? – // laurentiu.eu
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