I have a hard time trusting apps with my privacy as it is, but my worries run deeper when they’re realized by app makers that seemingly have zero interest in conserving user privacy, but rather harvesting user data for the sake of profit or surveillance.
Examples that struck irritating chords with me included learning that popular apps like LinkedIn and TikTok snooped on users’ clipboards without their permission. Apple’s upcoming iOS 14 update makes users more aware of app-centric clipboard access, but if you don’t plan to update because you’re jailbroken, then you can use a newly released and free jailbreak tweak called NoClipboardForYou by iOS developer shiftcmdk instead.
Albeit not as advanced or exciting as iOS 14’s clipboard privacy features, NoClipboardForYou should be just as effective at keeping intrusive apps out of your clipboard. Once installed, the tweak adds a dedicated preference pane to the Settings app where users can configure the apps that are allowed to access clipboard data:
The preference pane, which uses an installed app list and a series of toggle switches, lets users turn apps “on” to disable clipboard access for those apps. You will need to force quit any apps you change settings for via the App Switcher and restart them for the changes to take effect.
Obviously, there are implications for denying clipboard access to specific apps. If you try to paste something in an app you’ve disabled, then it won’t work since the app can’t read your clipboard. On the flipside, that app can still write to the clipboard, which means you can still copy text from a disabled app. Using this tweak can make entering data in apps more tedious, but apps won’t be able to snoop, which is good in terms of privacy.
If you’re interested in taking control of clipboard privacy on your jailbroken handset, then you can download NoClipboardForYou for free from shiftcmdk’s repository via your preferred package manager. The tweak supports jailbroken iOS 13 devices and is open source on the developer’s GitHub page.
If you’re not already using shiftcmdk’s repository, then you can add it your preferred package manager using the following URL:
https://shiftcmdk.github.io/repo/
Do you plan to protect your pwned handset’s clipboard privacy with NoClipboardForYou? Let us know why or why not in the comments section below.
