Prohibition of the use of the TikTok application on government devices in the United States and Canada

The White House on Monday gave government agencies 30 days to ensure that the TikTok app does not exist on any of the devices or systems of the federal government.

Shalanda young, director of the Office of management and budget for government agencies, said in a guidance note seen by Reuters that they will be required to amend it contracts to ensure that contractors protect US data by stopping the use of TikTok on devices and systems used under their work.

 The Canadian government on Monday banned the TikTok app on all its phones and devices, citing data protection concerns.

TikTok, owned by Chinese company Bytedance, has been under the microscope of the West for months due to concerns about the extent of Beijing's access to user data.

A government statement said that as of Tuesday, " the TikTok application will be deleted from mobile devices granted by the government “ Users of these devices will also be prevented from downloading the application in the future,”he added.

The government added that Canada's chief communications officer”concluded that it (the app) posed an unacceptable level of risk to privacy and security".

Although there is no evidence of government data breaches associated with the app, The Canadian government warned that “TikTok's data collection methods allow extensive access to the contents of the phone”.

The European Commission last week banned the app on its devices, following similar steps in the United States.

A spokesman for TikTok was surprised by the Canadian decision to block the application, saying that it was taken “without mentioning any specific security concerns” or consulting with the company.

Relations between China and Canada have deteriorated sharply in recent years, especially after Ottawa, at the request of the US judiciary, arrested a senior Huawei official in 2018, and China responded to the move by arresting Canadian citizens.

Last week, the Canadian privacy commissioner opened an investigation targeting TikTok over the collection and use of users ' personal information.