European Commission bans TikTok from staff gadgets
- Reference: 1677223628
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2023/02/24/european_commission_bans_on_tiktok/
- Source link:
The ban was enacted to enhance cyber security at the behest of the commission's Corporate Management Board, which oversees and coordinates management issues for the EU's executive arm.
"This measure aims to protect the commission against cybersecurity threats and actions which may be exploited for cyber-attacks against the corporate environment of the Commission," the EC said in [1]a statement . "The security developments of other social media platforms will also be kept under constant review."
[2]
The commission's statement cites the need to protect staff from a rising number of cyber threats but fails to explain while TikTok was singled out.
The security developments of other social media platforms will also be kept under constant review
For the other government entities around the global that have disallowed TikTok for their respective employees or more broadly – [3]India , [4]Taiwan , at least 19 US State governments, including [5]Maryland , [6]South Carolina , and [7]South Dakota , the [8]US House of Representatives , and the [9]US military , among others – the rationale for banning the social media app has been concern the software could facilitate remote spying on behalf of Chinese authorities.
TikTok is owned by ByteDance, a Chinese company based in Beijing and incorporated in the Cayman Islands. The ByteDance leadership team operates largely out of Singapore, and TikTok's parent is currently 65 percent owned by Western investment firms.
[10]
[11]
Despite this ostensibly distributed corporate footprint, the assumption among Western governments is Beijing could demand access to the data TikTok collects outside the Middle Kingdom or could demand the alteration of TikTok source code to facilitate intelligence gathering. And due to the unchecked power of the Chinese Communist Party within China, it's unlikely any company based there could get away with refusing to cooperate.
[12]US House boots TikTok from government phones
[13]Meta, Google, TikTok and friends sue California to block kids privacy law
[14]TikTok could be banned from America, thanks to proposed bipartisan bill
[15]Gen Z lingo and search engines: A Millennial Odyssey
Given the extent of [16]data gathering by the US and its allies and the ease with which technology products can be turned into surveillance devices – to say nothing of the decades trying to convince China to respect foreign intellectual property claims or the recent Trump-initiated trade war – it's hardly surprising there's not much trust between America and China. This mistrust in turn, occurring amid China's effort to assert itself as a global superpower, has led to [17]efforts to exclude China from the technology supply chain and has fueled China's aspiration [18]to achieve technological self-sufficiency.
TikTok, caught in the middle of the emerging geopolitical divide, has made gestures to mitigate security concerns, such as turning to Oracle to host the data of US users. But executives with the app's parent company have failed to provide the answers that US lawmakers would like to hear.
In a Senate hearing last September, TikTok chief operating officer Vanessa Pappas [19]was asked by Senator Rob Portman (R-OH) whether she "will commit to cutting off all data and metadata flows to China, Chinese-based TikTok employees, ByteDance employees, or any other party located in China?"
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Pappas declined to make that commitment, instead promising only that "our final agreement with the US government will satisfy all national security concerns."
TikTok's cause has not been helped by a [21]recent report that ByteDance employees had tracked the locations of journalists who had published articles critical of the company.
TikTik did not respond to a request for comment about the European Commission ban, though on Wednesday the company published [22]a rebuttal to a report from US-Australian cybersecurity firm Internet 2.0 that rated TikTok as [23]the worst app in terms of data collection among 23 chat and social media apps tested.
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In its response the developer challenged Internet 2.0's methods and conclusions.
"Their results contained a number of inaccuracies that should cast doubt on the validity of their findings," TikTok said, adding, "We take our responsibility to safeguard people's privacy and security seriously and devote considerable resources to achieve this goal."
If only reassurance were enough. ®
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[1] https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_23_1161
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_security/cso&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2Y-iYz9XWbfDv3zFTFTcCDwAAAEk&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://www.theregister.com/2021/01/28/india_china_app_ban_permanent/
[4] https://www.theregister.com/2022/12/07/taiwan_bans_chinese_platform_tiktok/
[5] https://governor.maryland.gov/2022/12/06/governor-hogan-announces-emergency-directive-to-prohibit-use-of-tiktok-china-and-russia-based-products-and-platforms-in-state-government/
[6] https://governor.sc.gov/news/2022-12/gov-henry-mcmaster-blocks-tiktok-state-government-devices
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2022/11/30/tiktok_nsfw_if_you_work/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2022/12/28/us_tiktok_government_ban/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2020/01/02/tiktok_us_army_ban/
[10] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_security/cso&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Y-iYz9XWbfDv3zFTFTcCDwAAAEk&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[11] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_security/cso&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33Y-iYz9XWbfDv3zFTFTcCDwAAAEk&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2022/12/28/us_tiktok_government_ban/
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2022/12/16/netchoice_california_kids_privacy_law/
[14] https://www.theregister.com/2022/12/14/tiktok_ban_proposed_us/
[15] https://www.theregister.com/2023/02/16/gen_z_lingo_bing_ai/
[16] https://www.theregister.com/2023/02/22/supreme_court_wikimedia_nsa/
[17] https://www.theregister.com/2021/09/21/semiconductors_china_quad/
[18] https://www.theregister.com/2021/03/04/china_two_sessions_tech_policy/
[19] https://www.hsgac.senate.gov/media/minority-media/portman-presses-meta-official-on-policies-allowing-exploitation-of-children/
[20] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_security/cso&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Y-iYz9XWbfDv3zFTFTcCDwAAAEk&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[21] https://www.theregister.com/2022/12/23/tiktok_tracked_journalists/
[22] https://newsroom.tiktok.com/en-us/mythbusting-the-facts-on-reports-about-our-data-collection-practices
[23] https://blog.malcore.io/p/tiktok-scores-631-designed-to-collect
[24] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_security/cso&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33Y-iYz9XWbfDv3zFTFTcCDwAAAEk&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[25] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Why were they ever able to install it?
My modest employer has their corporate phones locked down so nothing can be installed without ITs approval. I don't understand why an organisation responsible for governing would allow any personal use of provided devices.
Re: Why were they ever able to install it?
That seemed to be a trend for a while but in the last five years I've never worked anywhere which put any limit on what I could install on "my" phone.
Of course I have to wonder why Google and Apply phones aren't banned too as the US has got previous for spying on its "allies".
Re: Why were they ever able to install it?
Many people use their work phones for personal activity. It is quite normal for MDM tools to partition the phone between work and personal apps. It is how mine is done, there are two separate screens, the work one is locked down, the personal one is more open.
Re: Why were they ever able to install it?
I may be overly paranoid. I work on the principle that I wouldn't do anything on my corporate phone that I wouldn't be comfortable being live streamed to my departmental director.
Re: Why were they ever able to install it?
As I used to say to all my junior support people: "Never do or say anything on a support ticket that you wouldn't be comfortable hearing read out in court".
GJC
Re: Why were they ever able to install it?
I don't have a company phone because I don't want to carry around too many phones, and I like to do other stuff (listen to music, watch TV/movie) when I am travelling. so I need the ability to install my own apps. Please, I have the software on my personal phone set up just how I like it. I don't want any corporate restrictions on that.
Bearing in mind that, and the fact that the only corporate software I need when out and about is the Office suite (including Teams) and VMware Horizons, I've not applied for a company phone, and just use mine. It's also one less device to charge.
It's also worth pointing out that I rarely do company work on my phone. Usually, if I am working, I have a company laptop I use for that. I do answer the odd Teams call on my phone though.
But, AFAIK, the company don't allow any software on any of their devices unless it has been evaluated and found to be safe, or at least has no known vulnerabilities, and from what I am told, the company mobile phones are quite locked down.
TBH, I'm surprised the various governments have been so lax in locking down their devices. I understand they probably have laws banning any transfer of classified information via an unsecured network, but your average government employee may well have access to a lot of non classified data that could cause damage in the wrong hands. It also seems that sometimes, even the classified data can be left in less than secure places.. Look at Trump, Biden and Pence. I think even Bush Jr has been investigated.
Re: Why were they ever able to install it?
If someone brings their personal device, there is not much you can do apart from installing gates and searching people upon entry.
If people are working from home there is nothing you can do about this.
It's interesting that GDPR is not being applied - these apps are gathering personal data they don't need. Should be an open shut case to have them banned.
But as always - we can't have nice things because of brown envelopes.
"TikTok was singled out"
Indeed, all social media should be banned on corporate tools. Actually, anything not used for corporate business should be banned on corporate tools.
Banning it personal hardware is a bit overboard though, especially since the tools to allow personal hardware to be used on the corporate network are also supposed to set up a barrier between business and private data.
That barrier should be ban enough, but apparently it isn't.
Epic SNAFU
Rearranging deckchairs on the Titanic v2.0 springs to mind with regard to that action, TC.