On September 28, soon after the launch of Genshin Impact on on PC, PS4, iOS, and Android, multiple Japanese players claimed the game's anti cheat program mhyprot2 was spyware. miHoYo quickly denied the allegations and explained the situation. Later on, more allegations came out. This time from iOS 14 users claiming Genshin Impact does clipboard snooping and reads the content of their clipboard at startup. However, multiple Japanese Twitter users pointed out it's possibly due to a known bug caused by firebase dynamic links and likely unintentional on miHoYo's part. You can read the full story with our past coverage.On September 30, 1526 JST, miHoYo answered the Genshin Impact clipboard snooping allegations from Japanese players in a new statement published on Twitter and its official site:

Summary of miHoYo's statement regarding the Genshin Impact clipboard snooping allegations:

miHoYo explained it received reports regarding how Genshin Impact automatically reads clipboard information on iOS 14 devices. miHoYo stated this issue only exists in the iOS version of Genshin Impact.

miHoYo also explained where the problem stems from. In early stages of development, a system console function was added to the game's test version. In order to test Genshin Impact on each system. This function was used for reading the clipboard, copying specified coding in the game, and start the system console. miHoYo was planning to remove this function in the official version of Genshin Impact. But now discovered it wasn't completely removed. miHoYo sincerely apologized for the inconvenience caused by the mistake of its development team.

miHoYo stated that Genshin Impact does not process, save, upload or perform any malicious operation with the information it reads.

miHoYo contacted App Store in order to update the game and delete the function. The update should soon pass the App Store review. miHoYo will notify players on Twitter once the update is available.

Lastly, miHoYo apologized to all players for the inconvenience. Stating the development team and miHoYo as a whole will never do anything that could bring harm to players or their personal information. miHoYo hope players will keep supporting Genshin Impact.

Genshin Impact Launch Trailer (Japanese dub)

Genshin Impact launched on September 28 on iOS, Android, PC, and PS4. A Switch version is also in development. You can learn more on Genshin Impact with our past coverage. Most notably how while online coop is cross platform, only mobile and PC players can cross save. Meanwhile, PS4 accounts can only stay on PS4. The development team teased additional systems are coming, including Photo Mode. We’ll soon publish a beginner’s guide for those interested in trying it out too.

Update:

On October 1, 0848 JST, miHoYo announced on Twitter that the update on App Store is now available. This whole story and allegations about Genshin Impact clipboard snooping should be over now: