The government of Canada announced today that starting tomorrow it will ban the TikTok app in the mobile devices that you provide to your personl, citing “an unacceptable level of risk” to privacy and security.
“On a mobile device, TikTok’s data collection methods 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 the moment that some government information has been compromised“, he added, according to the AFP news agency.
For her part, a spokeswoman for ICT Tac he said that decision to block app was ‘curious’because it was taken “without citing any specific security concerns”, and regretted that the government did not contact with the company before the official announcement.
The magnifying glass is on TikTok
The popular short and viral video platform, owned by the Chinese company ByteDance, is increasingly scrutinized by Western countrieswho fear that Beijing could thus access the data of users around the world.
The move to Canada comes days after a decision similar from the European CommissionWhat prohibits the use of TikTok to its staff to “protect” the institution.
TikTok ban is to ‘protect’ the government
TikTok too is 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 executive officials.
A Buzzfeed investigation into audio leaks revealed in 2022 that byteanceparent company of TikTok, repeatedly accessed its users’ data from the United States at least between September 2021 and January 2022. “Everything shows in China” is one of the most resonant phrases from the recordings obtained by BuzzFeed.
Investigate TikTok
THE China-Canada relations have deteriorated significantly in recent years.particularly after Ottawa’s arrest, at the request of the United States, of Huawei’s chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou, in 2018.
The Privacy Commissioner of Canada, a non-partisan ombudsman and officer of Parliament, announced last week that launched an investigation on TikTok for the purpose of establishing its compliance with Canadian law.
Its particular objective is to verify that “TikTok has obtained valid consent for collection, use and disclosure personal information”.
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