> Uh huh. So they’ve now changed their app so it doesn’t do that anymore.

Sure, and so did many others. This is because now the API works differently, and notifies the user.

> Mind letting me know what functionality they gave up doing that?

I don’t know what tiktok used it for, but I have examples above. It’s also likely possible to code it in a different way so as to not lose functionality. Developers are sometimes lazy. The API worked, so why do it differently.

> I don’t have to think of a legitimate reason why TikTok would need to read my clipboard data, that’s their responsibility. If they can’t, then it shouldn’t be done.

Fortunately for you, they don’t anymore.

> There’s no argument you can make that justifies reading the data

I think I did make such arguments.

> after they were discovered they both changed their app to no longer do that and they didn’t lose any functionality.

You make it sound like it was a big secret. It was just an API that used to not pop up a notification, and now does. So all apps that used this before, now got noticed. But this doesn’t imply anything about how they used it.

Why did they change their app? Well, it’s obviously very annoying for the user with those pop ups, and it raises questions about why they do it. But that still doesn’t mean there weren’t perfectly fine reasons for it.

> No, that just means all those apps are sketch af too.

No it doesn’t.

> You don’t accidentally read the clipboard

I never said anything about accidentally reading it.

> somebody wrote that code thinking it was ok to read your personal data.

No they didn’t, this is complete speculation. The most common use case is to look at the clipboard data to see if it’s, say, a YouTube link, if you’re the YouTube app, and so on. There are several obvious uses like that.

The API wasn’t protected at all, and guidelines doesn’t say anything about private data.

> so why should they have any benefit of the doubt when it comes to what they were using it for.

Because your argument is “I can’t think of any legitimate uses so it’s for bad purposes”. But that’s an argument from lack of imagination. Several times before when this has been brought up, actual developers have chipped in with examples. You’re just making stuff up.

You mean you don’t.

I’m not aware of any public evidence. I think it’s based on fear/perceived risk.

But it’s a lot more nuanced than implied.

> That’s sketch af.

Maybe, maybe not. Several apps did that. When you say “copying everything”, it really just means called the API to get the clipboard. It doesn’t mean or imply anything about what’s done with the data. Could be looked at and thrown away, which seems likely. In many cases apps would do this to look for e.g. app specific links.

Since there was no specific reason not to do it, they might as well do it often.

Are you?

Yeah, the self confidence sometimes on Reddit is amazing :)

> But by that same measure I would argue that it is appropriate to limit the availability of such a powerfully addictive app that is controlled by that same dictatorship.

Sure, there can be sense in that. It’s all a risk assessment. I don’t think the app is as directly controlled by Xi as everyone seems to assume without evidence, and I don’t think it poses any particular risk to “the average person”, but, well, it’s not up to you or me.

Yeah, but China is a dictatorship and can hardly be used as a model for what laws other countries should implement.

> Politico (opens in new tab) reports that one app has been shown to collect information on phone calls made by people who have the app installed.

But that’s not possible to do without asking the user. And in general, apps have to ask for most access they try to obtain, at least on iOS.

Yeah, that part was interesting.

Right. There are two OLED technologies now, though. This one, “WOLED”, and the QD OLED from Samsung.

To each his own. I liked it a lot.

I guess it's divisive. I loved it :)

Calling it a “display” seems a bit misleading wrt. how people would generally use that word.

But yeah, nice concept.

> It is called SARS-CoV19

I belief it’s called SARS-CoV-2. The original SARS virus is -1.

Isn't it more moral to admit, though, if you are guilty?

They should have made the train 25 kilometers long, so the travel time would be reduced to 0. You may have to walk between cars to get off.

> Apple is not a privacy-first company.

Whether or not that’s true isn’t really that relevant to the topic, though, which is about categories of ads and how they are placed along other apps. That seems to have much more to do with what the advertisers try to do, and what Apple doesn’t disallow.

The headline kinda implies that Apple deliberately placed these ads in that position. That’s almost certainly not the case.

Yet you were downvoted by someone :(

> You’re right that the battery won’t be prevented from working, but I’m fairly certain the iphone would if the repair was performed by a 3rd party without apples proprietary software.

I’m not sure how it is nowadays. I think what will happen is that some parts (such as the front camera assembly) will simply not work, while others (such as the battery) will display a warning and disable some features (like battery condition).

Batteries aren’t prevented from working after replacement. Well, not on iPhones at least.

I came to make that comment as well. Before that I would tend to agree, but I don't see any reason for them to change that port if not for a general trend.