Did you know that your clipboard can be read by pretty much any Android app installed on your phone? Unless you have some kind of third-party ROM that blocks such access, any app could in theory read and access your clipboard where you might have copied the usernames and passwords to sites and services you use.
If that sounds worrying, we get it, but at the same time it is also a very good reason to look forward to the Android Q update. According to XDA Developers who have been combing through a leaked early build of the update, they have found a new permission in Android Q that could in theory prevent apps from reading your clipboard unless you grant that app permission to do so.
The permission’s protection level is at “signature”, which means that only apps signed by the OEM can be granted this permission, which basically refers to apps that come preinstalled on the device. It is not mentioned if this could be extended to third-party apps where users could potentially grant other apps permission to read their clipboard as well (for whatever reason). This sounds like fantastic news since we’re sure that no one likes being snooped upon.
We should point out that at this point in time, nothing is official yet. Google has yet to release the developer preview for Android Q so it is possible that if and when they do, the features we’ve been seeing could have changed. Google I/O 2019 is expected to take place on the 7th of May so perhaps we’ll learn more about Android Q and its features then.
Source: XDA Developers
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