title: “Shocking Discovery: Apps are secretly accessing your Android clipboard - Here’s how to catch them in the act!” date: 2021-03-15T20:20:00-07:00 draft: true
If you’re an Android user, chances are you’ve copied and pasted text at least once. Whether it’s a URL, a password, or a message to a friend, copying and pasting has become an essential part of our online activities. However, a recent discovery has revealed something shocking about the Android clipboard.
According to a report by Forbes, several popular apps for Android, including TikTok, AccuWeather, and Call of Duty Mobile, have been found to be secretly accessing users’ clipboards without their knowledge or consent. This means that any text that you’ve copied to your clipboard, including sensitive information, could be accessed by these apps.
So, why are these apps accessing your clipboard? The reasons are unclear, but it’s possible that they are using this information for user profiling or to display targeted ads. Whatever the reason may be, it’s clear that this is a serious breach of privacy.
Fortunately, there is a way to catch these apps in the act. Android has a built-in feature that alerts you whenever an app accesses your clipboard. Here’s how to turn it on:
- Go to your device’s Settings app.
- Scroll down and select “Privacy.”
- Tap on “Permission manager.”
- Find and select “Clipboard.”
- Turn on the switch next to “Alert me when an app access my clipboard.”
Once you’ve turned on this feature, you’ll receive a notification whenever an app accesses your clipboard. If you receive an alert from an app that you don’t expect to be accessing your clipboard, you can take action by revoking its clipboard access.
To do this, follow these steps:
- Go to your device’s Settings app.
- Scroll down and select “Apps & notifications.”
- Find and select the app in question.
- Tap on “Permissions.”
- Find and select “Clipboard.”
- Turn off the switch next to “Allow access to the clipboard.”
By following these steps, you can protect your sensitive information from being accessed by apps without your knowledge or consent. It’s important to keep in mind that not all apps are guilty of accessing your clipboard, but it’s always better to be safe than sorry.
In conclusion, the recent discovery of apps accessing users’ clipboards on Android devices without their knowledge or consent is concerning. However, by following the steps outlined above, you can catch these apps in the act and take action to protect your privacy. Always be mindful of the permissions you grant to apps and stay vigilant to protect your personal information.
Along with the privacy dashboard, Android 12 also introduced a mic/camera indicator that adds a green dot to the Status bar whenever an app accesses your phone’s camera or microphone. In Android 12, we recently discovered another useful privacy feature that shows a prompt whenever an app pulls content from your clipboard.
What are Clipboard Access Alerts in Android 12?
If you are using Android 12, you can enable a privacy setting to see when an app access your Clipboard. This is a helpful feature that will help you detect apps that run silently in the background and copies your clipboard content. Whenever an app tries to access the clipboard content, Android 12 will show you a message at the bottom of the screen telling you about an app that accessed your clipboard. After knowing the app name, you can revoke the clipboard permission or uninstall the app on your device.
Steps to See When Apps Reads Your Clipboard on Android
Hence, if you are interested to see when apps access your clipboard on Android, you have landed on the right page. Here we will share a step-by-step guide on finding apps that access your clipboard on Android 12. Let’s get started.
First of all, pull down the notification shutter and tap on the Settings gear icon. Alternatively, open the App drawer and select the Settings app.
On the Settings app, scroll down and tap on the Privacy.
On the Privacy Screen, scroll down and enable the Show clipboard access option.
Important: The name – Show clipboard access might vary from device to device. In some phones, it is the ‘Alert me when apps read the clipboard’ option that you need to enable. 4. After enabling the feature, you need to start using your Android as you do. 5. Now, whenever an app tries to access the clipboard, Android 12 will show you an alert like this.
That’s it! After knowing the app name, if you feel that the app shouldn’t be accessing your clipboard, you can open the App list and uninstall the app. Android 12 brings many new features, many of which are focused on privacy. With this clipboard privacy feature, you can easily detect apps running silently in the background and accessing your clipboard. You can also disable camera & mic access in Android 12 to secure your privacy further.
