Reddit fixes iOS clipboard reading

Reddit has said it will fix an issue in its code that was causing its iOS app to read a user's clipboard contents.

As reported by The Verge:

Reddit says it's releasing a fix for a piece of code that copied contents from users' clipboards. Users in a beta version of iOS 14, which sends an alert when an app tries to copy clipboard information, reported receiving the alerts with each keystroke in Reddit's iOS app.

"We tracked this down to a codepath in the post composer that checks for URLs in the pasteboard and then suggests a post title based on the text contents of the URL," a Reddit spokesperson wrote in an email to The Verge. "We do not store or send the pasteboard contents. We removed this code and are releasing the fix on July 14th."

A couple of days ago, Reddit became the latest app found to be reading clipboard contents, as highlighted by iOS 14.

Apple released a new feature in iOS 14 that will notify users every time an app reads their clipboard. Several other apps such as TikTok and LinkedIn have also been caught snooping and have updated their apps accordingly.

We recently did an in-depth look at the issue of clipboard snooping, what it is and whether users should be worried out it, which you can read here!

As the report notes, Reddit seems to have had a fairly logical reason, namely suggesting post titles based on URLs in a user's pasteboard, however, checking it every keystroke seems like a bit much. Reddit reiterated that it does not store or send the contents read anywhere and that a fix will be issued on July 14.