TikTok launched a new attempt to assuage European leaders’ worries about data privacy on Wednesday, as Western governments consider further bans on the video-sharing app. .
Their initiative comes as the Czech network watchdog issued its own warning, describing the Chinese-owned video-sharing app as a security threat.
Western powers, including the European Union and the United States, have taken a tough approach to the app owned by Chinese company ByteDance.
They worry that Beijing can access sensitive user data from around the world.
TikTok executives say the company is working with a European third-party security company to monitor and check how it handles European users’ data, which will be stored stored at three centers in Dublin and Norway from 2023 onwards.
TikTok claims the project will also reduce employees’ access to user data.
According to Bertram, TikTok’s European vice president of public policy, the company declined to name a partner, but the project is worth 1.2 billion euros ($1.3 billion) and started six months ago.
TikTok had a similar deal in USA with Silicon Valley giant prophesy to keep WE data of domestic users.
“Just like we did…in the US, we will build a secure environment around that data to prevent access from outside the region,” Bertram said.
– Check alert –
As the company pushes for a new charm offensive to convince lawmakers that there’s nothing to worry about, TikTok’s general counsel, Erich Andersen, will be in Europe this week.
He held talks with policymakers in Brussels and London. Bertram said Andersen will also speak to officials in Paris and The Hague.
EU regulatory bodies have in recent weeks asked employees to remove the app from smartphones and laptops used for work purposes.
US lawmakers are pushing for a bill that would make it easier to ban apps, which comes after a US Congress-ordered purge of all government-issued devices.
Some national governments in Europe have also restricted TikTok to government employees, and others are looking at how to address cybersecurity concerns arising from the app.
The Czech Republic became the latest country to issue a warning on Wednesday.
The National Cyber and Information Security Bureau (NUKIB) said it was concerned because TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, “is under the jurisdiction of the People’s Republic of China”.
The Czech government, while part of the EU, has not introduced a ban so far. But in a report last year, its intelligence agency, the BIS, pointed to China as a major threat to Czech cyberspace.
TikTok says it has more than 150 million users in Europe, including the UK.
The EU has raised concerns about data protection, but TikTok has always strongly denied that China has any control or access.
Ireland’s privacy regulator is investigating ByteDance over whether it breached EU data protection law, GDPR, with its handling of children’s personal data and data transfers to China. .
