[deadwing0]

Could you share your reasoning as to why this is Apple abusing its market position?

To me it appears that Apple is simply giving users control and transparency in what data is being used. I understand your point to be that because Apple is so large and controls a large market, they can't make changes like this? Correct me if I'm wrong, but if that is your point, then I would have to disagree. By this reasoning, what could Apple do that wouldn't count as accusing I its market position?

[braythwayt]

You're 100% right. Everything Apple does can be construed as "abuse" if someone is willing to argue in bad faith.

iOS now tells you when one app pastes content from the clipboard, if the contents of the clipboard came from another app.

e.g., You copy a zip code from Messages, and then switch to the "HN-Maps" app. If HN-Maps sniffs the clipboard in order to suggest that zip code as a destination, you see a notification that "HN-Maps pasted from Messages."

That sounds like a good feature for me as a user, but a terrible feature for app developers that want to constantly and silently scan your clipboard for keywords they can add to the data they sell on their shady data exchanges.

They can and will complain that Apple is "abusing" its monopoly power, but this isn't abuse at all. Next, I expect them to complain that Apple's feature that shows you which apps are draining your battery is also abusing their power to make users uninstall apps that are greedy for battery.

iOS is a shopping mall, and when you write apps for the platform, you're renting a space in the mall and must able by all the regulations in the lease that were put in there for the benefit of the landlord. Part of the landlord's interest is their pocketbook immediately--see the app store's 30% haircut--and part of the landlord's interests are the long-term viability of the mall.

The landlord--Apple--has to care about things like user satisfaction, because the tenants--facebook, et al.--would happily burn down the entire platform for a buck or two.

[soneil]

Maps actually make a perfect example of why this needs to exist, even without malicious actors.

Your zipcode example starts off as a perfectly well-meaning example of clipboard-sniffing, but after a very short meeting with "reality", quickly turns into passing strings to a geo API because there's a lot more addresses than just zipcodes we'd like to detect.

And it just so happens that the most significant provider of such an API, is also one of the most significant providers of adtech going ..

You can see how quickly it goes from "providing seamless UX" to "the road to hell is paved with good intentions".

[braythwayt]

You are preaching to the choir on this subject!

[luckylion]

> iOS now tells you when one app pastes content from the clipboard, if the contents of the clipboard came from another app.

Does it do that for all apps, or only non-Apple-apps?

[soneil]

You'd expect first-party apps to handle this properly. The intention is that you probe the clipboard metadata (which doesn't display this warning) to see if the clipboard looks like it might be useful to you - and then act (or offer to act) if it does.

So first-party apps should have bought into the data-detectors stuff wholesale.

An example of this would be the url bar in Safari. If you try to paste into the address bar, you'll be offered "Paste and go" if the clipboard offers a url-like object, and "Paste and search" if it's a non-url stringy object. You'll get the "Safari has pasted from Mail" warning after you select one of these, because the contents were not exposed during the metadata operations. This is the expected behaviour.

[braythwayt]

Just tried it on iPadOS 14, and yes, "Messages pasted from Safari."

[dan1234]

Definitely also includes Apple’s apps, I’ve just tested copying in Safari and pasting into Notes.

[sbuk]

All, including Apples built-in apps. It tells you where the data was copied from and which app it was pasted to.