More warning dialogs ahead: Apple regulates access to macOS clipboard
In future, Mac apps should no longer be able to access data from the clipboard unnoticed. iOS has already demonstrated this.
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Mac users and developers need to be prepared for a fundamental change in macOS: In the future, the operating system will warn with a message dialog as soon as an app accesses the central clipboard in the background or reads its contents. Apple has now informed developers of this upcoming change in a note on AppKit changes. Mac apps should be prepared for this change accordingly, the manufacturer advises.
The specific macOS version with which this data protection function for the clipboard will be introduced remains open for now. This does not yet appear to be the case in the macOS 15.5 beta, but implementation may follow with macOS 16 in the fall. The new behavior can already be tested by developers as of macOS 15.4.
Copy & paste: Consent also required on the Mac
Such a data protection function has already existed in iOS for five years, and macOS is now following suit. The behavior on the Mac corresponds to the functionality in iOS, Apple explains. Users should only see a warning dialog if an app captures the content of the clipboard independently and without interaction, i.e. this happens unnoticed by the user.
Apple also provides new methods in NSPasteboard that allow apps to check clipboard content for certain patterns without being able to see the actual content. In this case, the user is not warned. For example, an email client can check whether a copied email address is in the clipboard and then request access to read and paste it. The user can then generally allow or deny access. This apparently has to be done individually for each app, similar to how it is implemented in iOS.
Additional protection for content in the Mac clipboard is certainly desirable. Many users are probably unaware that sensitive data can easily be stored there. In addition, the clipboard in Apple systems works across devices by default: What is copied on the iPhone therefore also ends up in the clipboard of your Mac, if it happens to be nearby.
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Mac users annoyed by warning dialogs
It remains to be seen how well the implementation works. Users have long been confronted with a growing number of warning dialogs on macOS, which remind some of Windows Vista and quickly become annoying in everyday use. Beginners tend to be unsettled by this, while professionals are annoyed. The expansion of the data protection functions for the iOS clipboard was accompanied by a constant barrage of warning dialogs for practically every copy and paste operation, and Apple had to make several improvements. Ultimately, users can use the settings for each app to determine how they can access the clipboard.
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