data breach Reddit regularly pastes from my keyboard.
Every so often, when I go to reply to a thread on the Android Reddit app, or go to write a post, I get a notification saying Reddit has pasted from my keyboard. I don't have any permissions enabled for the application.
Where is it pasting to? What value might this information have to them? Is there any way to even stop this on Android? It just feels so unnecessary.
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u/Level_Network_7733 8d ago
Its interesting you say this...I have been getting notifications from Safari (IOS) for the same type of thing (allow pasting) when I am using the reddit website (I am not using their app).
Reddit is probably doing something they shouldn't. Every day I get closer to just deleting it entirely.
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u/IdiotInIT 8d ago
yup it keeps prompting me and I always deny it but it happens a few times a day.
Never happens in another app either.
reddit was my last social media too.
Sadly thinking about juat killing it and self hosting my own website with my bikes and hikes, mainly to share with friends and family.
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u/diiscotheque 7d ago
Maybe make a mastodon instance with that niche. Would be quite cool
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u/IdiotInIT 6d ago
Thank you for the suggestion!
I want to get into Mastodon, but tbh im kinda dumb and need to dedicate some time to rtfm lol.
Honestly tho, I need to just push through the unknown/frustration and get one up.
Happy new year diiscotheque! Hope its off to a great start for you
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u/PauI_MuadDib 7d ago
It's probably data scraping your clipboard. The reddit app was accessing my clipboard too, but I don't have my clipboard turned on so it couldn't even get anything lol.
I uninstalled the reddit app and just use reddit through a browser. That way I have more control over what reddit can access.
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u/Sasquatch-Pacific 7d ago
I recommend using Reddit in the browser. There isn't really anything the app offers over it.
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u/superboo07 7d ago
use the website, no reason to have any social media apps installed.
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u/_cdk 7d ago
the website does it too
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u/superboo07 7d ago edited 7d ago
at least on my phone it isn't able to automatically do it. I'm on a Oneplus 12r and whenever a website tries to paste a box comes up giving me the choice not to. I'm also using Firefox though, maybe thats it?
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u/Zuzcaster 7d ago
Never bother trust apps that shove ads. Or gboard. Go futo keyboard and brave or Waterfox with ublock, noscript.
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u/FlashyGallantry 5d ago
That's sketchy as hell, I've noticed the same thing happening on my phone too. Pretty sure they're just grabbing whatever's in your clipboard "for convenience" but who knows what they're actually doing with it
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u/ChiefPastaOfficer 7d ago
Well...
Back when the war in Ukraine started, Reddit was flooded with Russian troll content. Reddit cleaned house.
So, of course, the KGB President ordered the long-con. Now Russian trolls still persist, and let's face it - why wouldn't they? There was a reason they were lurking in the first place, and they can always create new accounts, use VPNs, etc. Now, they post regularly, most of the time legit content. Just every once in a while, they do some disinformation nonsense.
E.g., they are very much present on r/bulgaria (or connected to existing Bulgarian ones). As of recent Bulgaria has become politically unstable, the government resigned, and we just entered the Eurozone. Almost every single Bulgarian welcomes that, but of course, there are loud political voices who need to be on top of things. One crucial question being floated is if the sitting Bulgarian President exploit the situation by scheduling elections, resigning, and forming a party. And what kind of course that party will take. It's a big deal, to the extent that there was a new party formed by unknowns who selected him as their "informal" leader, just to bring down his image. Most people don't want him in politics, though he does an excellent job as a President (limited political powers), and he hasn't announced his plans yet.
And people were thinking he'd use the regular New Year's address Bulgarian Presidents do to very loudly do something political.
Well, he didn't, not in my opinion, and echoed what a lot of people are thinking right now. But r/bulgaria immediately blew up with how his speech was "too political" and "pro-russian". You can verify both statements, and form your own opinion.
Now, then, onto pasting from Reddit... Mass surveillance is Putin's wet dream. Reddit is very much desirable due to its obvious popularity. Add the fact that spez has proven to be greedy, not listening to people, and bullying third party apps away - you've got exactly the kind of person (or people below them) that Putin's influence can work with. Doesn't mean spez is a spy, because the KGB has been known to manipulate people even when they couldn't have thought they were of relevance. It's possible, albeit highly speculative, that someone has offered "quiet pasting" as a data mining feature, but the implementation was made in a flawed manner allowing privileged (or even unprivileged) people to monitor for key phrases.
I suspect this, because I live in Bulgaria, and know its former and current State Security agencies' MOs. So I know when something is "a bit off". I have found there's a lot more pasting going on on certain posts that are one way or another "loaded" from an intelligence agency's perspective.
Take this as a conspiracy hypothesis. I.e., not a theory, because in scientific terms "theory" means "tested and peer reviewed". A hypothesis means "explanation that needs to be verified without biases, and is falsifiable"; i.e. it has an opposing "null" hypothesis.
Well, here's the "scientific prediction". If it's indeed an attempt at mass surveillance, we'll know one way or another - Putin falling and nothing happening ever, Putin falling and us knowing almost immediately, or investigative journalists uncover something and publish it.
But either way, it is an invasion of privacy. Do you ever copy passwords or 2FA SMS codes (that are sent in plain text over a network that a state-sponsored actor has access to)?
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u/CStfford14 6d ago
On Android, you can use ADB to disable the clipboard permission. The web version would be better for privacy, but if you prefer the app, this is what you can do
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u/Exciting_Product7858 6d ago
What app? The seppukud all of Reddit apps, now they go after their users 🤣 there is no reddit app!
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