5 ms·

> The app knowing I took a screenshot feels adjacent to me to a keylogger. To my knowledge, this is a misunderstanding. The app does not know that you are tak

> The app knowing I took a screenshot feels adjacent to me to a keylogger. To my knowledge, this is a misunderstanding. The app does not know that you are taking a screenshot, rather iOS knows you are taking a screenshot (as it must) and is excluding an element on display that has been designated by the developer as sensitive information. This is the same technology that prevents you from accidentally screenshotting your password manager; the developer has simply performed a nifty trick to display a small icon behind where the “follow” button would otherwise be displayed. There are plenty of instances where this sort of thing can be annoying, such as when you try to screenshot a streaming service app and DRM enforcement leaves you with a blank screenshot, but IMO this particular instance is actually very tasteful; seeing “follow” on every screenshotted post is just useless noise, but a small unobtrusive platform icon is a useful reminder that the post came from Bluesky and not another very visually similar service like X(cancel) or Mastodon.

Barbing 2mo ago
Can Snapchat no longer inform the other user when a screenshot was taken?
- jambalaya8 2mo ago
  can someone just take a picture of the phone with another phone, or use a screen recorder?
  - computably 2mo ago
    Security is never absolute, it always "merely" raises barriers.
    - jambalaya8 2mo ago
      [flagged]
      - Barbing 2mo ago
        mmm on average we’ve probably considered the photograph of a screen, and we were focused on: >To my knowledge, this is a misunderstanding. re: an OS informing an app of a user action (but didn’t downvote ya)
        jambalaya8 2mo ago
        the other device then likely indexes it after a brief once-over by its own ai-enabled os. any crossover interactions, and it may as well be the same device. maybe some of you have not experimented enough with the theshold to have noticed yet.
        Barbing 2mo ago
        Able to elaborate for me?
akersten 2mo ago
Neither of those use cases seem good or tasteful to me as a user, I don't think this concept of "secure (from the user) context" should exist, but maybe that's just me
chrsstrm 2mo ago
"The app does not know that you are taking a screenshot, rather iOS knows you are taking a screenshot (as it must) and is excluding an element on display that has been designated by the developer as sensitive information. This is the same technology that prevents you from accidentally screenshotting your password manager" And that is reasonable, but it is also a surface where an app touches the OS, which should be a permission boundary that I can control. Allowing the option to opt-out of screenshot blocking with a proper double-confirm warning and biometric auth is also reasonable.
- KennyBlanken 2mo ago
  It's wrong. iOS sends an event on screenshot. https://developer.apple.com/documentation/uikit/uiapplication/userdidtakescreenshotnotification https://developer.apple.com/documentation/uikit/uiapplicatio...
- MBCook 2mo ago
  The OS notifies the app after the screenshot is taken. The app doesn’t get to do anything in response to it being taken or allow it to be blocked. They’re abusing an iOS text rendering control function handled by the OS. Before the screenshot is taken iOS swapped out the rendered text for “sensitive” fields and images that. The replacement is supposed to be something like a masked account number, password asterisks, or just general blur. Not a marketing logo.
zahlman 2mo ago
> This is the same technology that prevents you from accidentally screenshotting your password manager Yes, and I would say it's a bad thing that the OS tries to prevent this. > seeing “follow” on every screenshotted post is just useless noise, but a small unobtrusive platform icon is a useful reminder that the post came from Bluesky and not another very visually similar service like X(cancel) or Mastodon. I would say it's a bad thing that Bluesky makes the screenshot look different from what was on screen for the user. If I cared about excluding the "useless noise" from a faithful depiction of the pixels on my screen, I could address that myself.
- EGreg 2mo ago
  Why is this feature bad? As someone who develops apps for confidential conversations, making it harder for people to screenshot the confidential stuff is a feature the sending party wants, that is why they send in your app as opposed to others. It doesn’t make things impossible, just hard enough that 95% of people won’t bother to take a copy. Same for example with disappearing audio messages on whatsapp What I don’t like is the app being informed that I took a screenshot. The OS can hide things in screenshots without this.
  - stronglikedan 2mo ago
    Don't send me anything you don't want screenshotted. Easy-peasy. I'll accept an opt-out of whatever protections are in place for the general user, but I don't accept that those protections should remain in place for all users. It's hostile.
  - nemomarx 2mo ago
    One user wants it not to be shared, but the other user might have various reasons to want to take that screenshot - maybe it's evidence of something they need to share urgently with others, whatever. It's definitely hostile to that other user. I get why you'd set it up that way, but it's a tension that really goes against the "full control of your own device" ideal a lot of people have.
  - seany 2mo ago
efskap 2mo ago
The app actually is notified after the screenshot is taken: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/uikit/uiapplication/userdidtakescreenshotnotification https://developer.apple.com/documentation/uikit/uiapplicatio... Android does it too: https://developer.android.com/about/versions/14/features/screenshot-detection https://developer.android.com/about/versions/14/features/scr...
- snailmailman 2mo ago
  Spotify uses this and it annoys me all the time. If you screenshot what you are listening to, after the screenshot is taken spotify will open a full-screen popup to "share" the song you are listening to. This is quite dumb, especially since if you wanted to share a song via the screenshot, you can do so in the OS-level screenshot UI, and then you would close it and see Spotify's own similar version of the same UI. Spotify just really wants you to use their own share button so that they can track you.
  - MBCook 2mo ago
    I’ve seen another app do that but for a different reason. It’s for security cameras and they use it to show a “hey idiot just press the save a picture button, don’t take screenshots” popup, which is also hostile. I’m not sure why the app needs to be notified. There must be some use but I can’t think of it off the top of my head.
    - TeMPOraL 2mo ago
      > I’m not sure why the app needs to be notified. There must be some use but I can’t think of it off the top of my head. My pet theory: it's because Snapchat got big early, platforms added the feature to facilitate Snapchat's business model, and then banks started abusing it, and it stuck around "because sekhurity".
      - MBCook 2mo ago
        No, that feature long predates Snapchat. In fact, I think it predates iOS, but I don’t remember for sure.
applfanboysbgon 2mo ago
I think bsky's use of this malware feature is as benign as it's possible to get, but it's still a malware feature. As you point out, the real reason this exists is to enforce DRM and make your computer serve Netflix et al rather than the person who owns it. > accidentally screenshotting your password manager; I could not think of a more useless justification for installing malware into the OS. Okay, you've accidentally screenshotted your password manager. So what? Are you going to accidentally upload it to the internet too? I'd much rather live in a world where people who are that stupid face minor consequences for their actions than one in which all of our own computers are used against us.
- deleted 2mo ago
  [deleted]
  - CircuitSeuss 2mo ago
    As with most things, it would be ideal if we could have both good defaults to make things accessible and advanced user controls to allow users to retain control. That’s a rare mix these days.
    - MBCook 2mo ago
      People like to say that. How many hundreds of additional options would a modern phone OS need to provide that though? How could applications possibly be tested? You could have a million installs and 300,000 of them could easily have fully unique combinations of options past what’s available today. How could you ever provide support to a user? “First take 200 screenshots and send those to me…”
stronglikedan 2mo ago
> This is the same technology that prevents you from accidentally screenshotting your password manager I should be able to screenshot anything I want, including my password manager. I should be able to opt-out at the OS level, or any other level that enforces it. That's why it's definitely a user hostile feature.

Barbing 2mo ago

Can Snapchat no longer inform the other user when a screenshot was taken?

jambalaya8 2mo ago
can someone just take a picture of the phone with another phone, or use a screen recorder?
- computably 2mo ago
  Security is never absolute, it always "merely" raises barriers.
  - jambalaya8 2mo ago
    [flagged]
    - Barbing 2mo ago
      mmm on average we’ve probably considered the photograph of a screen, and we were focused on: >To my knowledge, this is a misunderstanding. re: an OS informing an app of a user action (but didn’t downvote ya)
      - jambalaya8 2mo ago
        the other device then likely indexes it after a brief once-over by its own ai-enabled os. any crossover interactions, and it may as well be the same device. maybe some of you have not experimented enough with the theshold to have noticed yet.
        Barbing 2mo ago
        Able to elaborate for me?

akersten 2mo ago

Neither of those use cases seem good or tasteful to me as a user, I don't think this concept of "secure (from the user) context" should exist, but maybe that's just me

chrsstrm 2mo ago

"The app does not know that you are taking a screenshot, rather iOS knows you are taking a screenshot (as it must) and is excluding an element on display that has been designated by the developer as sensitive information. This is the same technology that prevents you from accidentally screenshotting your password manager" And that is reasonable, but it is also a surface where an app touches the OS, which should be a permission boundary that I can control. Allowing the option to opt-out of screenshot blocking with a proper double-confirm warning and biometric auth is also reasonable.

KennyBlanken 2mo ago
It's wrong. iOS sends an event on screenshot. https://developer.apple.com/documentation/uikit/uiapplication/userdidtakescreenshotnotification https://developer.apple.com/documentation/uikit/uiapplicatio...
MBCook 2mo ago
The OS notifies the app after the screenshot is taken. The app doesn’t get to do anything in response to it being taken or allow it to be blocked. They’re abusing an iOS text rendering control function handled by the OS. Before the screenshot is taken iOS swapped out the rendered text for “sensitive” fields and images that. The replacement is supposed to be something like a masked account number, password asterisks, or just general blur. Not a marketing logo.

zahlman 2mo ago

> This is the same technology that prevents you from accidentally screenshotting your password manager Yes, and I would say it's a bad thing that the OS tries to prevent this. > seeing “follow” on every screenshotted post is just useless noise, but a small unobtrusive platform icon is a useful reminder that the post came from Bluesky and not another very visually similar service like X(cancel) or Mastodon. I would say it's a bad thing that Bluesky makes the screenshot look different from what was on screen for the user. If I cared about excluding the "useless noise" from a faithful depiction of the pixels on my screen, I could address that myself.

EGreg 2mo ago
Why is this feature bad? As someone who develops apps for confidential conversations, making it harder for people to screenshot the confidential stuff is a feature the sending party wants, that is why they send in your app as opposed to others. It doesn’t make things impossible, just hard enough that 95% of people won’t bother to take a copy. Same for example with disappearing audio messages on whatsapp What I don’t like is the app being informed that I took a screenshot. The OS can hide things in screenshots without this.
- stronglikedan 2mo ago
  Don't send me anything you don't want screenshotted. Easy-peasy. I'll accept an opt-out of whatever protections are in place for the general user, but I don't accept that those protections should remain in place for all users. It's hostile.
- nemomarx 2mo ago
  One user wants it not to be shared, but the other user might have various reasons to want to take that screenshot - maybe it's evidence of something they need to share urgently with others, whatever. It's definitely hostile to that other user. I get why you'd set it up that way, but it's a tension that really goes against the "full control of your own device" ideal a lot of people have.
- seany 2mo ago

efskap 2mo ago

The app actually is notified after the screenshot is taken: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/uikit/uiapplication/userdidtakescreenshotnotification https://developer.apple.com/documentation/uikit/uiapplicatio... Android does it too: https://developer.android.com/about/versions/14/features/screenshot-detection https://developer.android.com/about/versions/14/features/scr...

snailmailman 2mo ago
Spotify uses this and it annoys me all the time. If you screenshot what you are listening to, after the screenshot is taken spotify will open a full-screen popup to "share" the song you are listening to. This is quite dumb, especially since if you wanted to share a song via the screenshot, you can do so in the OS-level screenshot UI, and then you would close it and see Spotify's own similar version of the same UI. Spotify just really wants you to use their own share button so that they can track you.
- MBCook 2mo ago
  I’ve seen another app do that but for a different reason. It’s for security cameras and they use it to show a “hey idiot just press the save a picture button, don’t take screenshots” popup, which is also hostile. I’m not sure why the app needs to be notified. There must be some use but I can’t think of it off the top of my head.
  - TeMPOraL 2mo ago
    > I’m not sure why the app needs to be notified. There must be some use but I can’t think of it off the top of my head. My pet theory: it's because Snapchat got big early, platforms added the feature to facilitate Snapchat's business model, and then banks started abusing it, and it stuck around "because sekhurity".
    - MBCook 2mo ago
      No, that feature long predates Snapchat. In fact, I think it predates iOS, but I don’t remember for sure.

applfanboysbgon 2mo ago

I think bsky's use of this malware feature is as benign as it's possible to get, but it's still a malware feature. As you point out, the real reason this exists is to enforce DRM and make your computer serve Netflix et al rather than the person who owns it. > accidentally screenshotting your password manager; I could not think of a more useless justification for installing malware into the OS. Okay, you've accidentally screenshotted your password manager. So what? Are you going to accidentally upload it to the internet too? I'd much rather live in a world where people who are that stupid face minor consequences for their actions than one in which all of our own computers are used against us.

deleted 2mo ago
[deleted]
- CircuitSeuss 2mo ago
  As with most things, it would be ideal if we could have both good defaults to make things accessible and advanced user controls to allow users to retain control. That’s a rare mix these days.
  - MBCook 2mo ago
    People like to say that. How many hundreds of additional options would a modern phone OS need to provide that though? How could applications possibly be tested? You could have a million installs and 300,000 of them could easily have fully unique combinations of options past what’s available today. How could you ever provide support to a user? “First take 200 screenshots and send those to me…”

stronglikedan 2mo ago

> This is the same technology that prevents you from accidentally screenshotting your password manager I should be able to screenshot anything I want, including my password manager. I should be able to opt-out at the OS level, or any other level that enforces it. That's why it's definitely a user hostile feature.