By John Ikani
Canada’s government has announced that it will ban popular video app, TikTok, from all government-issued devices, starting Tuesday.
According to a spokesperson for the government, the decision was made after a review by Canada’s chief information officer who determined that the app poses “an unacceptable level of risk to privacy and security”.
TikTok responded by saying the company was disappointed with the decision.
The decision comes just days after the European Commission announced that it too would be banning the app due to security concerns.
Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, also expressed concern, stating that there was enough concern around the app’s security to warrant the change.
“This may be the first step, this may be the only step we need to take”, he said during a press conference.
TikTok, which is owned by Chinese firm ByteDance Ltd, has been criticized for its use of personal information and ties to the Chinese government.
The company insists that Chinese government officials don’t have access to user data and that a Chinese version of the app is separate from the one used in the rest of the world.
However, the company admitted last year that some staff in China can access the data of European users.
Last year, US federal employees were banned from using TikTok, and a number of American universities have also banned the app from being used on their networks.
Broader public bans have been implemented in India and several other Asian countries.
Canadian privacy regulators are also investigating TikTok over concerns about user data, particularly whether the company obtains “valid and meaningful” consent from users when collecting personal information.
The ban for European Commission employees is set to come into force on 15 March.
Meanwhile, the app will be removed from government-issued phones this week and other devices and blocked from downloads in the future.
According to Mona Fortier, the president of Canada’s Treasury Board, the government is committed to keeping government information secure.
“While the risks of using this application are clear, we have no evidence at this point that government information has been compromised,” she said.
