The Office of the Communications Commissioner announces that the European Commission has followed the example of the United States and banned staff from using the Chinese social media app TikTok for security reasons.
In a statement, the European Commission asked all staff to remove TikTok from their official devices. Employees working at the Commission must also remove the app from their personal devices if they store any work-related content there.
"To protect the Commission's data and increase its cybersecurity, the corporate board of directors has decided to suspend the TikTok app on corporate devices and personal devices enrolled in the Commission's mobile device service," said the email sent to staff Thursday morning.
Employees must uninstall the popular video-sharing app before March 15. If TikTok is still installed on the device, users will not be able to bring their phone, laptop or tablet into the "corporate environment."
This is not surprising. Governments in the West are increasingly concerned that Chinese tech companies - TikTok among them - are helping the Beijing regime gather vast amounts of user data, particularly sensitive political and security information.
TikTok, owned by Chinese internet company ByteDance, has updated its privacy policy and explicitly confirmed that the company's China-based employees can access European user data.
Previous reports also indicated that TikTok may have transferred US user data to servers based in China.
TikTok reminds consumers that it has never given the Chinese government access to their data. However, as a Chinese company subject to Chinese law, the company must cooperate with China's intelligence activities.
The US, where TikTok has been under pressure for a few years, moved in December 2022 to ban the app from all federal government devices. Several states have also implemented their own restrictions.
The Digital Security Authority advises:
[*]Check your settings and make your account private, not public. [*]Your account should only accept messages from friends. [*]Use mobile antivirus. [*]Do not allow other users to download your videos. [*]Use two-factor authentication (2FA). [*]Pay close attention to links.
https:/ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_23_1161
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