The Government of Canada announced Monday that starting Tuesday will ban the TikTok app on the mobile devices it provides to its staff, citing “an unacceptable level of risk” to privacy and security.

“On a mobile device, the methods of TikTok data collection provide extensive access to phone content,” Treasury Minister Mona Fortier said, adding in a statement that the decision was made “as a precautionary measure.”

“We have no reason to believe at this time that any government information has been compromised,” he added.

A spokesperson for ICT Tac said the Canadian decision to block the app was “curious” because it was taken “without citing any specific security concerns”, and regretted that the government had not contacted them before the official announcement.

The popular short and viral video platform, owned by the Chinese company byteanceis increasingly scrutinized by Western countries, who fear that Beijing could thus access the data of users around the world.

This ban in Canada comes days after a similar decision by the European CommissionWhat prohibits the use of TikTok to its staff to “protect” the institution.

TikTok is also in the crosshairs of the American authorities: a law ratified a few weeks ago by President Joe Biden prohibits the use of this application in the House of Representatives and the Senate, as well as on the devices of administration officials. .

Relations between China and Canada have deteriorated dramatically in recent years, especially after the arrest by Ottawa, at the request of the United States, of Huawei’s chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou, in 2018.

The Privacy Commissioner of Canada, a nonpartisan ombudsman and officer of Parliament, announced last week that he had launched an investigation into TikTok in an effort to establish its compliance with Canadian law.

In particular, it aims to verify that “TikTok has obtained valid consent for the collection, use and communication of personal information”.