TikTok—the Chinese viral video giants usage that soared under lockdown has been caught spying again. The ByteDance-owned platform was under fire anyway, over allegations of ongoing data mishandling and censorship, but then a beta version of Apple’s iOS 14 caught the app secretly accessing users’ clipboards and a worldwide backlash immediately followed.
The Problem
The problem starts with iOS’s clipboard function. The function helps a user copy text or image and paste it on another app. The clipboard can also be used to copy-paste text and images from one Apple device to another Apple device, like from an iPhone to a Mac or an iPad.
However, because of the way Apple software was designed, any app was able to record all text and images that were copy-pasted via the clipboard function. There would be no warning or notice to the user that a particular app is recording information the user was copying via the clipboard.
TikTok May Lose Up To $6 Billion As Result Of India‘s Ban
Whether India had always planned to announce its ban on TikTok, along with 58 other Chinese apps, or was prompted by the viral response to the iOS security issue is not known. But, as things stand, TikTok has been pulled from the App Store and Play Store in India, its largest market, urging users to delete the app. Similar protests are coming from users in other major markets around the world, including the U.S.
Initially, TikTok disputed these allegations and blamed it on 3rd party software that the app interacts with. However, these recent revelations seem to imply that TikTok has indeed been spying on users on the iPhone platform and Apple has now confirmed this. The specific vulnerability involved TikTok’s ability to access clipboard content on the iPhone platform, something Apple says it has now resolved in the upcoming iOS 14 update.
Apple and TikTok continue to place blame on the other party. TikTok says they are releasing an updated version of the app that does not spy on users, but given their checkered history in this regard, it’s hard to believe this is the case.
Most security experts have recommended removing TikTok from your devices. These latest revelations have renewed concerns about the app and recommendations to stop using it.
Delete TikTok Now!
That’s the best advice we can give today and if you know someone that’s using it, explain to them that it’s essentially malware operated by the Chinese government running a massive spying operation. There are just too many security concerns to be comfortable with using TikTok.
