TikTok, a popular Chinese video-sharing social networking service, found itself in the middle of yet another controversy after Apple launched the developer preview for iOS 14.
The users testing the beta version of the iOS 14 software for iPhones found that TikTok is recording what they are typing on their phones.
This has come to light at a time when the India-China border tension continues in Ladakh.
The recording could range from non-sensitive information to passwords or even sensitive emails, say reports.
TikTok is owned by ByteDance, a Beijing-based internet technology company founded in 2012 by Zhang Yiming.
The Indian government was recently recommended by the country’s intelligence agencies to block or advise the citizens to stop the use of 52 mobile applications linked to China, including TikTok.
The beta version of the iOS 14 warns the users about all the apps that were accessing their clipboard.
Soon after WWDC 2020, multiple users installed iOS 14 developer beta on their devices and the users with TikTok saw multiple warnings from the new version of iOS, say reports.
The new iOS version reportedly warns the users that TikTok was accessing their clipboard “every few seconds”.
The practice is likely to affect iPhone users with TikTok accounts in India and the world.
As per reports, the final version of iOS 14 is expected to be released later this year.
According to a Forbes article, TikTok is not the only an app that could be exploiting this vulnerability, but it is the most high-profile of all apps caught spying on users in this way.
TikTok had said it would stop the “invasive practice” in April, but it is still continuing to do so.
Reacting to the Forbes article, TikTok said the issue is “triggered by a feature designed to identify repetitive, spammy behaviour”, and 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”.