Concerns that TikTok could be forced to share user data with Beijing have prompted the company to implement additional security measures.
TikTok will make it more difficult to single out individual users based on data, which will be monitored by Project Clover, which will see a separate security business “monitor data flows.”
According to what it claims, “security gateways” will add an additional layer of control to the access that employees have to information about European users and data transfers made outside of Europe.
The app that is owned by ByteDance has been banned from all devices used by employees at the European Commission.
“Gain people’s confidence.”
TikTok has revealed plans for two new data centers, which will cost a total of €1.2 billion (£1.1 billion) every year, in Dublin, in addition to one that was already announced, and in the Hamar region of Norway. This is all part of the company’s ongoing effort to store user data from European users locally.
Both of these will be run by independent organizations and powered by renewable resources.
Since December of last year, the business has been hard at work on the Project Clover.
TikTok’s Vice President of Government Affairs and Public Policy in Europe, Theo Bertram, stated that the business is “ahead of the curve” on this issue because they “have to be” and “we need to earn confidence.“
In the United States, a similar scheme known as Project Texas is currently in the works.
More than one hundred million people in the United States use the program to watch viral videos.
However, the governments of Canada and the United States have implemented restrictions that prevent its use on official devices.
According to TikTok, such limitations are “misguided” and “do nothing to advance privacy or security.”
In addition, China is vehemently opposed to the action.
How insecure must the world’s leading superpower, the United States, be for it to be afraid of the most popular program amongst young people? Mao Ning, a spokesperson for China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said.
“Tensions on the diplomatic front”
The day before the announcement of Project Clover, Vice President Joe Biden of the United States gave his administration’s support to a bill that would grant the powers to ban foreign-owned technology. Senate Intelligence Committee Chair Democrat Mark Warner and Republican John Thune both supported the legislation.
Shou Zi Chew, the chief executive of TikTok, is scheduled to testify in front of lawmakers later this month.
On Tuesday, representatives from TikTok stated that the company was concerned about becoming a “pawn” in the ongoing international tensions between the United States and China.
According to Michael Beckerman, the director of public policy for the company’s operations in the United States, “We can’t help but feel like pawns in larger geopolitical struggles that don’t directly affect us.”
TikTok was not the only company that gathered significant quantities of user data; as he explained it, “almost all of the major tech companies also have engineers in China.”
“And so some of these concerns would extend to all of these businesses; however, that is precisely the reason why we are building out the system to ensure that there is no question that data is secure,”
