Posted on 06/27/2020 12:43:04 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
A report published on Friday suggests that the megapopular China-owned social media application TikTok was spying on users through a vulnerability in the latest version of Apples iOS smartphone firmware.
According to a report by Forbes, the popular social media platform TikTok may have been spying on millions of users by spying on data copied to their iPhones clipboard through a vulnerability in the latest iOS smartphone firmware.
The vulnerability, which allows application developers to access a users clipboard, data was modified on June 23 by Apple. Now, users will be prompted with a notification when an application gains access to their clipboard data.
A representative from TikTok told Forbes that the issue occurred as a result of a feature that was implemented to prevent spam on the platform.
According to TikTok, the issue is now triggered by a feature designed to identify repetitive, spammy behavior, and has told me that it has already submitted an updated version of the app to the App Store removing the anti-spam feature to eliminate any potential confusion. In other words: Weve been caught doing something we shouldnt, weve rushed out a fix.
TikTok claims that the clipboard access issues were triggered by an older version of the Google advertising SDK.
The clipboard access issues, the TikTok representative added, showed up due to third-party SDKs, in our case an older version Google Ads SDK, so we do not get access to the information through this (presumably they do but we cannot speak to that). We are in the processes of updating so that the third-party SDK will no longer have access.
Breitbart News reported at the beginning of June that children spend almost as much time on TikTok as they do on YouTube. The report revealed that children approximately 80 minutes on each application...
(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
Please stop using TikTok and ask your kids to stop.
The same group that tried to sabotage Trump’s rally in Tulsa
What’s your take on this? Overhyped or genuine risk?
TikTok should be banned. It is a collection tool for the CCP and it targets kids.
Vulnerabilities happen in all software so companies have to be particularly careful about allowing apps tied to known malefactors, regardless of their popularity.
I continue to use Apple products (Macs, iPhones, iPads) because overall they appear to me to be the best mix of function, privacy, and data security. But nothing is perfect. Id like to see Apple drop support for TikTok.
[My take is that TikTok is spyware. Im rather surprised that Apple permitted it in the App Store in the first place.
Vulnerabilities happen in all software so companies have to be particularly careful about allowing apps tied to known malefactors, regardless of their popularity.
I continue to use Apple products (Macs, iPhones, iPads) because overall they appear to me to be the best mix of function, privacy, and data security. But nothing is perfect. Id like to see Apple drop support for TikTok. ]
btt
The outrage! TicTok spying on I-phone users.
That’s Apple’s job, the cell provider’s job, and the NSA’s job.
Apples technical team is similarly bright and talented, but their motivation is necessarily somewhat different. They are mainly trying to develop products, increase capabilities and features, improve security, etc. Im sure Apple has a great test/QA team trying to find weaknesses and mistakes both in design and implementation. But the sheer numbers are in favor of the Bad Guys.
Just as with the argument for Open Source that having lots of eyeballs makes it easier to find errors lots of eyeballs also makes it easier to hack into defenses.
TikTok is like a Trojan horse in every sense. Users install it at their peril. Of course, there are many such nefarious apps around, but the huge popularity of TikTok gives it much greater coverage and momentum.
If you want on or off the Apple/Mac/iOS Ping List, Freepmail me.
Think about it, what are the average TikTok users going to have in their clipboard buffers?
The answer is obvious: The last photo or meme they copied to post on TikTok! These users one time use buffers are NOT going to have a damn thing of momentous import in them thats most likely not already uploaded on their TikTok account.
Incidentally, I read through the deeper linked articles on the TIKTOK malware and found that its mostly Android spying that sends back user info. I found zero references to Apple iOS for user info that could not be gleaned from the Cellular data carrier!
Thanks for the research on this. Never heard of TT until recently.
FUD. See my response above in replies 30, 31, and 32.
Are you sure about that?
Is Tick-tok trying to replace YouTube?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.