TikTok has more than a billion users worldwide and is widely used in the US and Europe, fuelling fears that Chinese authorities and secret services might use the app to collect information from users or to spread influence. — Photo: Marijan Murat/dpa
BRUSSELS: TikTok has responded to a spate of warnings from various governments to delete the short video app over privacy concerns and has rolled out a new policy assuring that European user data stays in Europe.
In a September announcement, the company said it has opened a new data centre in Ireland in a bid to ease fears in Europe about how user data could be accessed by China, and has begun transferring data from European users to the newly launched site.
The European Commission, several European governments and the US have banned the use of the popular app on staff mobile phones because of privacy and data use concerns.
Government bodies in the West are concerned that the app, owned by the Chinese company Bytedance, could be misused by Chinese authorities.
TikTok has more than a billion users worldwide and is widely used in the US and Europe, fuelling fears that Chinese authorities and secret services might use the app to collect information from users or to spread influence.
TikTok has always rejected concerns that the Chinese government could access user data and emphasises that it has never received data requests from Chinese officials and would not comply with them, as there is no legal basis for this.
In its latest data privacy announcement, the company again said that user data would "never" be sent to China. In the US, TikTok has made similar efforts to allay government concerns.
A second data centre in Ireland and another one in Norway are still under construction. All sites should be up and running by the end of 2024. European user data will be transferred there and stored by default.
European user data has previously been stored in Singapore and the United States.
TikTok aims to gain trust in Europe with its so-called Project Clover, which aims to show that access to the personal data of European users is strictly regulated and transparent.
The NCC Group, an independent British cybersecurity firm, is to oversee the system, TikTok says.
"Our objective scrutiny, monitoring and assurance means platform users in Europe and the UK can have confidence in the enhanced data security standards that TikTok is setting, which go above and beyond European regulatory requirements," Stephen Bailey, the NCC Group's privacy boss, said.
Beyond the NCC Group, TikTok's new data policy has not yet been scrutinised by data security experts, and EU countries still have a ban in place prohibiting government staff from installing the app.
Meanwhile in the US, an outright TikTok ban for all users in the US has not been ruled out. Germany's Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said in March that she sees no need for an all-out TikTok ban in Germany. – dpa
