Canada's Security Agency Warns Against TikTok Data Concerns 

Canadian security agency is asking its citizens to avoid using TikTok, raising concerns about their data being used by the Chinese government. 

David Vigneault, the director of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), stated in an interview with CBC News that the Chinese government has a very well-structured strategy that gives it the ability to access personal information globally using big data analytics and AI. 

Canada is not the first country to raise concerns regarding Chinese access to users’ data. The U.S is currently giving the issue of TikTok’s alleged handling of data with the Chinese government a high priority and is working hard to address it by either regulating the application or banning it within the country.   

On April 23, 2024 , Congress passed a bill that would require the popular video app to separate from its parent company, ByteDance or face a ban. In parallel, TikTok strongly opposed this move, claiming the ban would be, and is, unconstitutional. 

The video sharing company had previously claimed that its employees in China do not have access to users’ data within the U.S and Europe. To further ensure data protection, TikTok has launched two significant restructuring initiatives, Project Texas, and Project Clover, aiming to separate users’ data from China. 

Project Texas aims at addressing U.S. concerns about data security and national security threats by storing data in Oracle, known as inaccessible to external entities. As for Project Clover, its main purpose is to alleviate security concerns related to users’ data within Europe by establishing three data centers. 

 Despite these measures, there are still doubts about TikTok’s data security efforts, according to a report by Fortune. 

In a response to the claims of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), Danielle Morgan, a TikTok spokesperson, has vocalized the same statement when the U.S ban news broke, stating that the platform has never shared Canadian user data with the Chinese government and would not do so if asked. 

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