Microsoft’s LinkedIn has been accused of programming its iPhone and iPad applications to divert sensitive information without users’ knowledge, according to a class-action lawsuit.
Developers and testers of Apple’s most recent mobile operating system, iOS 14, found LinkedIn’s application was secretly reading users’ clipboards “a lot,” according to the complaint. “Constantly, even.” Apple’s clipboard often contains sensitive information users cut or copy to paste, including photos, texts, emails or medical records.
“LinkedIn has not only been spying on its users, it has been spying on their nearby computers and other devices, and it has been circumventing” Apple’s clipboard timeout, which removes the information after 120 seconds, according to the suit.
LinkedIn came under fire late last week with iOS 14 users who found the app to be snooping on items copied to the clipboard.
Users reported the snitching on social media, which consists of the LinkedIn app copying the contents of users’ clipboards with every keystroke.
iOS 14, which is still in beta, has a new privacy feature which notifies users when this happens with a banner alert.
LinkedIn vice president of engineering reported that it was a bug that the company fixed last week with a new version of the app.
