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Canada’s federal government has announced it is banning TikTok on devices supplied to government employees.
The move follows a number of US states and the US federal government banning the Chinese-owned social media and streaming site.
The move was announced overnight by Mona Fortier, the president of Canada’s Treasury Board, which oversees the Canadian public service and government operations.
“Effective February 28, 2023, the TikTok application will be removed from government-issued mobile devices,” Fortier said in a statement. “Users of these devices will also be blocked from downloading the application in the future. Following a review of TikTok, the chief information officer of Canada determined that it presents an unacceptable level of risk to privacy and security.”
Security issues are once again at the heart of the ban, with the Treasury Board citing both TikTok’s data collection and China’s own legal regime when it comes to how that data might be used. Despite the ban, the board notes that no government information has been compromised and goes on to address personal use of the app.
“For the broader public, the decision to use a social media application or platform is a personal choice,” Fortier said. “However, the Communications Security Establishment’s Canadian Centre for Cyber Security (Cyber Centre) guidance strongly recommends that Canadians understand the risks and make an informed choice on their own before deciding what tools to use.”
The move comes only a week after Canada announced a multi-agency probe into TikTok and its data collection policies. The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada announced the probe, working alongside three provincial agencies and said that it would be paying particular attention to how consent is gained from users and how children’s privacy is handled by TikTok.
“Given the importance of protecting children’s privacy, the joint investigation will have a particular focus on TikTok’s privacy practices as they relate to younger users, including whether the company obtained valid and meaningful consent from these users for the collection, use and disclosure of their personal information,” the OPC said in a statement.
TikTok is owned by Chinese company ByteDance and has over 1 billion active monthly users, of which over 8 million are in Canada.
David Hollingworth has been writing about technology for over 20 years, and has worked for a range of print and online titles in his career. He is enjoying getting to grips with cyber security, especially when it lets him talk about Lego.
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