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Do any Windows freeware apps habitually access the private contents of the clipboard upon mere invocation of the app?
Do any Windows freeware apps habitually access the private contents of the
clipboard upon mere invocation of the app? Which specific freeware Windows apps would that be that access saved clipboard data upon mere invocation of that app, and clearly without you asking them to? On the Apple newsgroups, it was posted that many iOS apps habitually access the private information on the clipboard, sans any user request whatsoever, to which the Apple users repeatedly and endlessly claimed that Windows apps do this exact thing all the time. o Famous iOS apps are snooping on the Pasteboard - Learn Worthy, by Ant https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/misc.phone.mobile.iphone/XXaeEvEB79Y What apps do you know of on Windows that access the clipboard every time you invoke those apps without you wanting those apps to have that data? -- Usenet helps all of us improve our technical skills by sharing with others. |
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Do any Windows freeware apps habitually access the private contents of the clipboard upon mere invocation of the app?
Arlen Holder wrote:
Do any Windows freeware apps habitually access the private contents of the clipboard upon mere invocation of the app? First problem, Arlen, is with your newsgroup list. Windows 10 has two kinds of applications, Win32 and Metro Windows XP has one kind of application, Win32. I then have to assume the question was placed in the three groups, so I would use a Venn diagram and conclude the question is about Win32 applications. The answer for Win32 applications is, there *is* no concept of privacy in the clipboard. The operator of the computer, the desktop, the applications, they're owned by the same user. In the old days, there was no contemplation of Cloud computing and "over-reach". Consequently, there is no protection. A relatively simple scheme, is to wipe over some text say, and select "copy" and overwrite the last clipboard usage, so that if another program starts, it cannot see whatever was in the clipboard previously. Such a model breaks down, if it turns out the clipboard in an OS is capable of multiple entries in MRU order, in which case you'd have to flush the clipboard N times. And perhaps, need a "clipboard viewer application" to review clipboard state. For Metro, please consult the labyrinthian collection of boolean permissions in that stinking Settings wheel. It gets worse. With the appropriate Cloud setting, your clipboard could be copied to another device (plus Microsoft sees it): https://support.microsoft.com/en-ca/...s-10-clipboard "To share your clipboard items across your Windows 10 devices, select Start Settings System Clipboard. Choose Automatically sync text that I copy under Sync across devices. " "How to clear clipboard history on Windows 10" https://pureinfotech.com/clear-clipb...ry-windows-10/ "Open Settings. Click on System. Click on Clipboard. Under 'Clear clipboard data' click the Clear button. " Yeah, it's a computer, and it's being naughty again. Paul |
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Do any Windows freeware apps habitually access the private contents of the clipboard upon mere invocation of the app?
On Tue, 17 Mar 2020 23:55:09 -0400, Paul wrote:
Windows 10 has two kinds of applications, Win32 and Metro Hi Paul, I apologize if the question wasn't clear... o Sometimes, it takes a few passes to fully clarify the question. I'll try to be specific that the subject line was carefully chosen that the answer is expected to be a list of apps, or, no apps whatsoever, that have already been caught accessing the clipboard upon invocation only - without a single command by the user to do so (as this is what happens on iOS). You are always purposefully helpful so I hope we can stairstep to narrow down the answer to a specific list of apps that have been caught accessing the clipboard (which is what we have on the iOS newsgroup) without any user action whatsoever, simply by invoking the app (which is exactly what was reported on the iOS newsgroups to be rampant). It's fine if the answer includes Metro, but, to answer your question about Metro, I don't plan on ever using a Metro app, so I certainly wasn't asking about Metro apps - but it's fine if the answer includes Metro apps as all that matters is the technical factual truth. The question was and is which apps have already been caught accessing the clipboard WITHOUT any user input whatsoever except for the invocation of the app (which was reported to be rampant on the iOS newsgroups). The answer for Win32 applications is, there *is* no concept of privacy in the clipboard. That's not the question though. To put it into perspective, all of us can rob banks, but only some of us actually rob banks. All of us can steal apples from the grocery store but only some of us steal apples from the grocery store. All of us can hit little old ladies on the head with baseball bats, but only some of us stoop so low as to be caught hitting old ladies on the head with baseball bats. Just because an app _can_ read the clipboad every single time it's invoked doesn't at all mean that the app _does_ read the clipboard. The relevant question is what apps have been caught reading the clipboard upon EVERY invocation of the app, WITHOUT any request by the user to do so. "How to clear clipboard history on Windows 10" https://pureinfotech.com/clear-clipb...ry-windows-10/ This is useful as an ameliorative move, but only if apps are actually caught accessing the clipboard without any input from the user other than invoking the app. The question is which apps have been caught accessing the clipboard without ANY input from the user except for the user invoking the app (which was reported to be rampant with iOS apps). Yeah, it's a computer, and it's being naughty again. This question has almost nothing, if not nothing, to do with the operating system; it has only to do with apps caught accessing the clipboard without any user intervention whatsoever, simply by invoking the app (which was reported to be rampant in iOS apps). Again, just because anyone can throw rocks at windows, only some people are caught throwing rocks at windows. Do any Windows freeware apps habitually access the private contents of the clipboard upon mere invocation of the app? -- Sometimes, on Usenet, it takes a few passes to fully clarify the question. |
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Do any Windows freeware apps habitually access the private contents of the clipboard upon mere invocation of the app?
Arlen,
Do any Windows freeware apps habitually access the private contents of the clipboard upon mere invocation of the app? No. As there are no private clipboard contents. Everyting in there is public (that info is just a google away). Yes. With the ammount of freeware apps its quite likely one of them will access/have accessed the clipboard when invoked. Like one of the several simple clipboard-sharing programs. What apps do you know of on Windows that access the clipboard every time you invoke those apps without you wanting those apps to have that data? :-) You didn't quite think that thru, didn't you ? The problem you are describing there is not that of a program (for good or bad) reading the clipboard, but the intention of the person (not the program) who, knowingly or not, places data onto the clipboard. In short: Its not the freeware apps problem (regardless of intention), but that of the user. The (obvious) solution ? Do not use programs which place data that /you/ want to keep private onto the clipboard. ...Which will be a bit hard as even a simple cut-and-paste uses the clipboard, but hey. :-) Though the solution to that is easy: Run those programs in their own "sandboxes"*, with clipboard sharing disabled. *full ones, or even just a small wrapper which intercepts the clipboard requests and either reroutes them to program local storage or encrypts the data and stores them under a private format. Bottom line: Your "lets create a list of bad clipboard accessing programs" is both futile (there might be new ones tomorrow) as well as not in any way a solution to the actual problem (keeping your clipboard-stored data safe from other programs). I hope we can stairstep to narrow down the answer Which should have started with thinking about the question itself - on multiple points. One of them being that your wish to compile a list of clipboard-reading freeware programs is already a solution itself, one /you/ regard as needed to solve the actual problem. And as you can probably tell, I do not regard your choice of it as anywhere near good, or even an attainable goal. Regards, Rudy Wieser |
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Do any Windows freeware apps habitually access the private contents of the clipboard upon mere invocation of the app?
"R.Wieser" wrote
| Do any Windows freeware apps habitually access the private contents | of the clipboard upon mere invocation of the app? | | No. As there are no private clipboard contents. Good way to put it. Arlen seems to be trying to perfect "our" list of best freeware recipe database programs by weeding out spyware. Visual Studio 6 is one program that's famous for bad design in that respect. It apparently uses the Clipboard when it starts up. Once started, the Clipboard is blank. That bug still sometimes catches me. I copy a code snippet, open VB6... woops. I seem to remember that Firefox also once did that, but it doesn't now. As far as I know there's also never been anything like a rule that the Clipboard should be erased when a program closes. Though PSP5 has a nice featu If there's a lot on the Clipboard it warns that I'm leaving a lot of data in memory and asks to confirm if I want to leave it for use in another program. |
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Do any Windows freeware apps habitually access the private contents of the clipboard upon mere invocation of the app?
On Wed, 18 Mar 2020 02:56:34 -0000 (UTC), Arlen Holder wrote:
Do any Windows freeware apps habitually access the private contents of the clipboard upon mere invocation of the app? Which specific freeware Windows apps would that be that access saved clipboard data upon mere invocation of that app, and clearly without you asking them to? That's easy. Any clipboard manager software does that. i.e. at program startup, it'll read the current clipboard contents and save it into its own list of clipboard data. It'll also monitor the clipboard, and whenever the contents changed, it'll be copied into its own list of clipboard data. MS-Office softwares such as Word and Excel also do this too, because they have built in clipboard manager. As other have said, there's no such thing as private and public clipboard - at least in Windows. However, in Windows, there can be multiple (true) Desktops (not to be confused with virtual desktop). Like the normal desktop and the logon screen which are actually two separate Desktops. Also the normal Desktop after switching to other user while keeping the previous user logged in. Each Desktop has its own set of clipboard data storage, application windows, etc. A Desktop can be shared among multiple users, and can also be made to be accessible to a single user only. This includes access to the clipboard contents of the Desktop. It all depends on the security attributes of the Desktop. |
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Do any Windows freeware apps habitually access the private contents of the clipboard upon mere invocation of the app?
On Wed, 18 Mar 2020 10:13:32 +0100, R.Wieser wrote:
In short: Its not the freeware apps problem (regardless of intention), but that of the user. Hi Rudy, Name just one. The question isn't who "can" rob a bank, since anyone can; the question is which apps have already been proven to be currently reading the clipboard without user action nor desire, simply upon the mere invocation of the app. Without an app name, the question isn't being answered, where I'll note in the iOS thread, it was _proven_ (based on the cited article) that the iOS apps do it - where the iOS users repeatedly blamed Windows for that happening on iOS. NOTE: The quoted text below is verbatim. Dated: March 14th, 2020 o Famous iOS apps are snooping on the Pasteboard https://learnworthy.net/famous-ios-apps-are-snooping-on-the-pasteboard 1. "Apps on iOS and iPadOS have unrestricted access to the system-wide general pasteboard, also referred to as the clipboard" 2. "An app that accesses the pasteboard can also read what has been copied on a Mac if Universal Clipboard is enabled" 3. "Access to the pasteboard in iOS and iPadOS requires no app permission as of iOS 13.3" 4. "Security risks of this vulnerability have been thoroughly discussed in Precise Location Information Leaking Through System Pasteboard https://www.mysk.blog/2020/02/24/precise-location-information-leaking-through-system-pasteboard/ 5. "Our findings only documented apps that read the pasteboard every time the app is opened" 6. "However, apps can delay snooping on the pasteboard until some time or event takes place (e.g. signing up), hence they are not included in our findings." Here's an alphabetical listing of some of the apps caught doing this: o ABC News: com.abcnews.ABCNews, com.abcnews.ABCNews o Accuweather: com.yourcompany.TestWithCustomTabs o Al Jazeera English: ajenglishiphone o AliExpress Shopping App: com.alibaba.iAliexpress o AMAZE!!!: com.amaze.game o Bed Bath & Beyond: com.digby.bedbathbeyond o Bejeweled: com.ea.ios.bejeweledskies o Block Puzzle: Game.BlockPuzzle o CBC News: ca.cbc.CBCNews, com.H443NM7F8H.CBSNews o Classic Bejeweled: com.popcap.ios.Bej3, com.popcap.ios.Bej3HD o CNBC: com.nbcuni.cnbc.cnbcrtipad o Dazn: com.dazn.theApp o FlipTheGun: com.playgendary.flipgun o Fox News: com.foxnews.foxnews o Fruit Ninja: com.halfbrick.FruitNinjaLite o Golfmasters: com.playgendary.sportmasterstwo o Hotel Tonight: com.hoteltonight.prod o Hotels.com: com.hotels.HotelsNearMe o Letter Soup: com.candywriter.apollo7 o Love Nikki: com.elex.nikki o My Emma: com.crazylabs.myemma o New York Times: com.nytimes.NYTimes o News Break: com.particlenews.newsbreak o NPR: org.npr.nprnews o ntv Nachrichten: de.n-tv.n-tvmobil o Overstock: com.overstock.app o Pigment Adult Coloring Book: com.pixite.pigment o Plants vs. Zombies Heroes: com.ea.ios.pvzheroes o Pooking Billiards City: com.pool.club.billiards.city o PUBG Mobile: com.tencent.ig o Recolor Coloring Book to Color: com.sumoing.ReColor o Reuters: com.thomsonreuters.Reuters o Russia Today: com.rt.RTNewsEnglish o Sky Ticket: de.sky.skyonline o Stern Nachrichten: de.grunerundjahr.sternneu o The Economist: com.economist.lamarr o The Huffington Post: com.huffingtonpost.HuffingtonPost o The Wall Street Journal: com.dowjones.WSJ.ipad o The Weather Network: com.theweathernetwork.weathereyeiphone o TikTok: com.zhiliaoapp.musically o Tok: com.SimpleDate.Tok o Tomb of the Mask: com.happymagenta.fromcore, com.happymagenta.totm2 o Total Party Kill: com.adventureislands.totalpartykill o ToTalk: totalk.gofeiyu.com o Truecaller: com.truesoftware.TrueCallerOther o Viber: com.viber o Vice News: com.vice.news.VICE-News o Watermarbling: com.hydro.dipping o Weibo: com.sina.weibo o Zoosk: com.zoosk.Zoosk o 10% Happier: Meditation: com.changecollective.tenpercenthappier o 5-0 Radio Police Scanner: com.smartestapple.50radiofree o 8 Ball Pool: com.miniclip.8ballpoolmult -- Usenet allows purposefully helpful adults to share solutions with others. |
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Do any Windows freeware apps habitually access the private contents of the clipboard upon mere invocation of the app?
On Wed, 18 Mar 2020 06:10:23 +0100 (GMT+01:00), Libor Striz wrote:
You probably mean also except clipboard content managers, as they access clipboard on background purposely. Hi Poutnik, A. How do we prevent this from happening (for _those_ apps that are known)? B. How can we most easily _test_ if a given Windows app is doing this now? I know you well where you sometimes play silly games (akin to nospam) which just waste our time, and other times you actually provide immense value. Let's hope your intent today is to provide adult value to the topic. To answer your question, I had clearly assumed it was obvious that it was already assumed, a priori, that the user was well aware the question is about listing specific Windows apps _unintentionally_ accessing the clipboard, merely upon invocation, without the users' express permission. However, given Paul's response that any app can rob a bank, one may ask reasonably why the desired list of apps even matters. 1. The original reason for asking was that it was proven that scores of iOS apps currently do this without the user's consent, which the Apple posters repeatedly blamed on Microsoft - which I wanted to see if that was a verifiable fact, or not. 2. However, even without that being the original impetus for the question, it's still a valuable topic to discuss on this newsgroup for _just_ the Windows apps (ignoring that scores of iOS apps were caught). 3. The output is expected to be a list of apps that are known to do this. As a bonus, two other outputs can reasonably be expected from an adult erudite conversation on this topic, namely: A. How do we prevent this from happening (for _those_ apps that are known)? B. How can we most easily _test_ if a given app is doing this right now? -- Usenet helps all of us improve our technical skills by sharing with others. |
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Do any Windows freeware apps habitually access the privatecontents of the clipboard upon mere invocation of the app?
In article ,
Libor Striz wrote: Arlen Holder Wrote in message: The question was and is which apps have already been caught accessing theclipboard WITHOUT any user input whatsoever except for the invocation ofthe app (which was reported to be rampant on the iOS newsgroups). You probably mean also except clipboard content managers, as they access clipboard on background purposely. No. They would be on the list. -- The randomly chosen signature file that would have appeared here is more than 4 lines long. As such, it violates one or more Usenet RFCs. In order to remain in compliance with said RFCs, the actual sig can be found at the following URL: http://user.xmission.com/~gazelle/Sigs/Noam |
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Do any Windows freeware apps habitually access the private contents of the clipboard upon mere invocation of the app?
In article , Arlen Holder
wrote: 1. The original reason for asking was that it was proven that scores of iOS apps currently do this without the user's consent, as do apps on other platforms, as you were repeatedly told by several people which the Apple posters repeatedly blamed on Microsoft nobody blamed anyone. |
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Do any Windows freeware apps habitually access the private contents of the clipboard upon mere invocation of the app?
"Mayayana" on Wed, 18 Mar 2020 08:35:51
-0400 typed in microsoft.public.windowsxp.general the following: "R.Wieser" wrote | Do any Windows freeware apps habitually access the private contents | of the clipboard upon mere invocation of the app? | | No. As there are no private clipboard contents. Good way to put it. Arlen seems to be trying to perfect "our" list of best freeware recipe database programs by weeding out spyware. Visual Studio 6 is one program that's famous for bad design in that respect. It apparently uses the Clipboard when it starts up. Once started, the Clipboard is blank. That bug still sometimes catches me. I copy a code snippet, open VB6... woops. I seem to remember that Firefox also once did that, but it doesn't now. As far as I know there's also never been anything like a rule that the Clipboard should be erased when a program closes. Though PSP5 has a nice featu If there's a lot on the Clipboard it warns that I'm leaving a lot of data in memory and asks to confirm if I want to leave it for use in another program. So the question comes, is there a means to "clear" the clipboard? Other than copying a blank space to paste later? -- pyotr filipivich Next month's Panel: Graft - Boon or blessing? |
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Do any Windows freeware apps habitually access the private contents of the clipboard upon mere invocation of the app?
On Wed, 18 Mar 2020 20:12:51 +0700, JJ wrote:
Any clipboard manager software does that Hi JJ, I must not have been clear in the OP, an omission for which I apologize. *We're only interested in exposing freeware apps _unintentionally_* *reading the clipboard upon mere invocation of the app* (as cited). To your point of clarification, Poutnik also mentioned _intentional_ reading of the clipboard... so please see my response to him that it was assumed, a priori, that we're not talking about exposing Windows freeware apps that the users _intend_ on reading the clipboard upon mere invocation. So far, from Paul and others, we are told that _any_ Windows app can secretly rob the bank without us asking them to, but that tells us nothing of use that we didn't know _before_ the thread was opened (AFAICT). To his credit, Mayayana posted reputedly known Windows apps that perhaps _do_ rob the bank without the users' express consent upon mere invocation of that Windows app: o *Visual Studio 6* o *Firefox* o ? any others ? -- These would clearly be apps to avoid in favor of corresponding freeware that does _not_ rob the bank sans permission upon mere invocation of the Windows freeware app. |
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Do any Windows freeware apps habitually access the private contents of the clipboard upon mere invocation of the app?
On Wed, 18 Mar 2020 09:13:30 -0700, pyotr filipivich
wrote: "Mayayana" on Wed, 18 Mar 2020 08:35:51 -0400 typed in microsoft.public.windowsxp.general the following: "R.Wieser" wrote | Do any Windows freeware apps habitually access the private contents | of the clipboard upon mere invocation of the app? | | No. As there are no private clipboard contents. Good way to put it. Arlen seems to be trying to perfect "our" list of best freeware recipe database programs by weeding out spyware. Visual Studio 6 is one program that's famous for bad design in that respect. It apparently uses the Clipboard when it starts up. Once started, the Clipboard is blank. That bug still sometimes catches me. I copy a code snippet, open VB6... woops. I seem to remember that Firefox also once did that, but it doesn't now. As far as I know there's also never been anything like a rule that the Clipboard should be erased when a program closes. Though PSP5 has a nice featu If there's a lot on the Clipboard it warns that I'm leaving a lot of data in memory and asks to confirm if I want to leave it for use in another program. So the question comes, is there a means to "clear" the clipboard? Other than copying a blank space to paste later? BleachBit will do that.(and numerous other privacy apps, but BleachBit is cross-platform, libre-ware and trustworthy) []'s -- Don't be evil - Google 2004 We have a new policy - Google 2012 |
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Do any Windows freeware apps habitually access the private contents of the clipboard upon mere invocation of the app?
On Wed, 18 Mar 2020 11:47:50 -0400, nospam wrote:
as do apps on other platforms, as you were repeatedly told by several people Name just one. -- Bull****ters always fail this, the simplest 3-word test of their facts. |
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[OT]Do any Windows freeware apps habitually access the private contents of the clipboard upon mere invocation of the app?
On Wed, 18 Mar 2020 17:37:26 +0100 (GMT+01:00), Libor Striz
wrote: Arlen Holder Wrote in message: I know you well where you sometimes play silly games (akin to nospam) whichjust waste our time, and other times you actually provide immense value. Let's hope your intent today is to provide adult value to the topic. This is one of your games I am not going to participate on. Oh fsck. I forgot the OT when I replied and now I'm watching the thread. Change watch and kill priorities? Nah, I deserve the punishment. []'s -- Don't be evil - Google 2004 We have a new policy - Google 2012 |
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