The European Commission has banned its employees from using the Chinese app TikTok on mobile phones for security reasons. On this subject writing Le Monde in reference to the representative of the European Commission.
According editions Euractiv, on the morning of February 23, employees of the European Commission received an email asking that TikTok be removed by March 15 not only from work devices, but also from personal smartphones if they have installed applications used for work.
The TikTok ban is introduced to protect the European Commission’s data and increase its cybersecurity, the letter says. Employees who don’t remove the app by March 15 won’t be able to use company mail and Skype, the letter warns.
Employees who want to keep TikTok on their personal devices should remove work apps from their gadgets.
TikTok spokesperson in a comment Policy and Euractiv called the European Commission’s decision wrong and “based on fundamental misconceptions”.
“We have contacted the Commission to clarify and explain how we protect the data of the 125 million people in the EU who log on to TikTok every month,” a spokesperson for the service said.
Earlier in February, the Dutch government educated intelligence agencies to examine the risks of using TikTok on government phones.
In 2022, US Senator Marco Rubio proposed legislation to ban TikTok from government devices. The Chinese app is used “to manipulate information and influence elections”, he said. In August, Rubio’s bill was unanimously approved in the Senate.
Last year, the British Parliament decided to close its TikTok account after MPs raised concerns about data security.
November TikTok published updated privacy policy for countries in the European Economic Area, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. It says company employees have remote access to user data, but TikTok does not collect exact user location information in Europe.
