The UK government has announced plans to ban the Chinese-owned social media app TikTok from all government devices.
Principality of Lancaster, Oliver Dowden, confirmed the plans earlier today after cabinet ministers ordered a security review of the app.
“Today, we are banning this app on government devices because the security of government sensitive information must come first. Use of other data extraction apps will continue to be considered,” Dowden explained. .
When installing the TikTok app, users must give permission to access data stored on their device. According to the UK Government, this data, including Contacts, User Content and Location Coordinates, is collected and held by the Company.
Dowden said the government and its international partners are concerned about how the data will be used.
“Restricting the use of TikTok on government devices is a prudent and balanced step following advice from cybersecurity experts,” the minister added.
However, Dowden clarified that the ban does not apply to personal devices intended for government employees, ministers or the general public.
Additionally, exceptions to the use of TikTok on government devices are currently being developed for specific business purposes, such as law enforcement roles and online victim investigations.
Chris Hauk, Consumer Privacy Advocate for Pixel Privacy, said:
“The United States has similar restrictions, but Canada, Belgium and the European Commission have already banned apps from being installed on government phones.”
Read more about TikTok here: Unpacking the recent government TikTok ban
However, Hawke said he would like the ban on social apps to be expanded to include the likes of Facebook and Twitter.
“While there is currently no concern that foreign governments can access data from these services, users tend to ‘overshare’ and government information may be inadvertently shared on these networks.” added Hauk.
Chris Vaughan, vice president of Tanium’s technical account team, explained that security concerns go beyond sharing information.
“The agency acknowledges that using this platform may expose staff and citizens to a number of problems, including campaigns designed to further the political ends of adversaries and deepen divisions in Western society. We are aware,” Vaughan insisted.
The UK’s ban on TikTok comes days after the company announced Project Cover and the creation of two new European data centers.
