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> Because if we put down our pitchforks for a second, LinkedIn is owned by Microsoft, which also owns a major browser and the world's most popular operating system. Microsoft sure as hell doesn't need to sniff your clipboard in LinkedIn, if it wanted to do something for nefarious purposes.

The original report is a combination of iOS and MacOS so Microsoft does not have any kernel level leverage.

I don’t doubt it’s not malicious. More likely a holdover from an older or related feature.

The real story here is how easy it’s been for apps to spy on your clipboard. Seeing it in something by a large company like Microsoft just adds to the sensationalism. The TikTok version of this story is the real deal.

This is exactly it. I have seen app developers who were "caught" by this use the same explanation. There is a new API that can be used instead that does not trigger the notification (and does not disclose the clipboard content)

Negligence from a trillion dollar corporation is a form of malice. They have the money to audit their products for quality and privacy issues. Instead they choose to not give a shit unless the media calls them out (and sometimes not even then.)

I feel like many of the people that has this opinion never worked at a big company in a big code base. It's probably a poorly coded feature from an intern that was left in because it had some value but operated in a way it shouldn't. Nobody is ever going to touch it until something like this happens. Then someone will go. "Oh shit we better fix this. Tell the product manager feature x is delayed so we can fix this shit storm."

> I feel like many of the people that has this opinion never worked at a big company in a big code base.

Well you're wrong about that.

> Nobody is ever going to touch it until something like this happens.

And that's the problem. A problem a company like Microsoft has the cash to avoid. They could hire more QA staff, but instead they've sacked tons.

Note that malice on the part of the corporation does not necessarily imply any individual at the corporation had malicious intent, although that can never be ruled out. Specifically, I am not claiming the intern who wrote the shitty code and forgot about it had malicious intent. Rather the organization itself is malicious, because it's a paperclip maximizer.

"Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.”

This.