UK.gov bans TikTok from its devices as a 'precaution' over spying fears
- Reference: 1678977264
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2023/03/16/ukgov_bans_tiktok_from_work_devices/
- Source link:
Speaking to Parliament this afternoon, Oliver Dowden, chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Secretary of State who oversees Cabinet Office policy, said the ban would have immediate effect and applied to devices issued within ministerial and non-ministerial departments, but not to “personal devices for government employees or ministers or the general public.”
Dowden declined the opportunity to say on what advice it acted to exclude the Chinese video-sharing software from government devices.
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“This is a precautionary move. We know that there is already limited use of TikTok across government, but it is also good cyber hygiene. Given the particular risk around government devices, which may contain sensitive information, it is both prudent and proportionate to restrict the use of certain apps, particularly when it comes to apps where a large amount of data is stored and accessed,” Dowden told MPs.
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Speaking for the opposition Labour Party, shadow cabinet minister Angela Rayner pointed out that on 28 of February, the secretary of state for science, innovation and technology [4]Michelle Donelan had previously said government use of the app was a matter of personal choice.
“She said that we have no evidence [of a threat] and a ban would be very forthright. What's changed? Two weeks, two ministers, and two completely different policies later, it's the same pattern over and over again. A government… forced into a U-turn at the last minute,” she said.
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She said the government’s track record for upholding security was “appalling” owing to its use of private email and WhatsApp messaging.
The UK government’s decision follows the US administration’s threat to ban TikTok if its Chinese parent company ByteDance did not give up its ownership to help ease national security concerns.
[6]Dems, Repubs eye up ban on chat apps they don't like
[7]Once AI can create endless viral videos, good luck switching off social media
[8]University of Texas latest US school to ban TikTok
[9]TikTok confirms it tracked journalists' locations as part of leak investigation
[10]States label TikTok 'a malicious and menacing threat'
The [11]Financial Times reported that the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, which evaluates foreign investment in the US, made the request to divest US TikTok in its review into the company.
TikTok has denied claims that data it collects on American users could be passed to the Chinese government and Communist party.
In an interview with [12]the Wall Street Journal , chief executive Shou Zi Chew said the company would hire American partner Oracle to store American users’ data to protect against the possibility of Chinese influence on videos US users see.
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The White House at the start of this month set a [14]30-day deadline for all federal staffers to expunge TikTok from their work devices, following Congress voting in December to ban the app on work devices. [15]Canada , the [16]European Commission and [17]Taiwan have also asked epmloyees to delete the app on government issued devices. ®
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[1] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_security/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2ZBNLLheivBYSp8sDPX6-bgAAAI8&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
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[4] https://www.politico.eu/article/tech-minister-tiktok-should-be-personal-choice-for-uk-officials/
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_security/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZBNLLheivBYSp8sDPX6-bgAAAI8&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2023/03/09/us_chat_apps_ban/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2023/03/08/generative_ai_viral_video/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2023/01/19/texas_university_bans_tiktok/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2022/12/23/tiktok_tracked_journalists/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2022/12/08/texas_bans_indiana_tiktok_lawsuit/
[11] https://www.ft.com/content/f04319bf-f663-451b-9cac-3015cbfee2ac
[12] https://www.wsj.com/articles/tiktok-ceos-message-to-washington-a-sale-wont-solve-security-concerns-94a8606?st=zuufggy2aid3hmc
[13] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_security/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZBNLLheivBYSp8sDPX6-bgAAAI8&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[14] https://www.theregister.com/2023/03/01/government_tiktok_ban/
[15] https://www.wsj.com/articles/canada-follows-u-s-europe-with-tiktok-ban-on-government-devices-2273b07f?mod=tech_lead_pos1
[16] https://www.theregister.com/2023/02/24/european_commission_bans_on_tiktok/
[17] https://www.theregister.com/2022/12/07/taiwan_bans_chinese_platform_tiktok/
[18] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
The year is 2023. The Trojan Horse lives again .. :-D
冰山一角
"The government said TikTok required users to give permission for the app to access data stored on the device, which is then collected and stored by the company. Allowing such permissions gives the company access to a range of data, including contacts, user content, and geolocation data. Dowden said this justified the ban."
Seems sensible as can easily imagine all sorts of ways that this information could be mined to identify and target high value assets for both cyber and real world shenanigans.
Now what about all the other apps and data aggregators that have this information, what controls are in place for those?
Re: 冰山一角
What are their IT department doing allowing overreaching apps like that on the devices in the first place?
And these MPs just going "yeah alright" to the permissions - these fuckers clearly have no idea regarding devices security but they feel they know enough to vote for that Online Safety bill?
Re: Seems sensible
I think the word you're looking for is xenophobic.
To be sensible it would need to be "We're banning apps that use these APIs" not "We're banning THIS app like they've done in the USA!".
Re: Seems sensible
"We're banning THIS app because the CCCP won't give u access to the data so we can snoop on our own citizens."
FTFY
Re: 冰山一角
Now what about all the other apps and data aggregators that have this information, what controls are in place for those?
They are busy stuffing brown envelopes and queueing to avoid any ban as we speak...
I think they are more talking about the "ccp" than the "app".
Wrong decision
They should be banning any non-work apps from work phones, not singling out the latest alleged threat. Similarly, no non-work related accounts, so Google Drive (or Dropbox, OneDrive, whatever) doesn't accidently upload a secret briefing doc to someone's personal drive.
Re: Wrong decision
What about WhatsApp? Is that a "non-work" application? Being as much of the government decision making has been done over that, it seems it's very much a work app.
Re: WhatsApp
But should it be in gov at all?
The answer is clearly no due to the lack of central logging (why I suspect most politicians like it) but liked for convenience, but equally those fsckers at Facebook are now holding it so no safety there.
Re: WhatsApp
Obviously there should be an official government app like Whatsapp
It will be delivered in 20years, rely on a Motorola and BAe operated 4.5G network and not run on any commercial phone hardware
The ability to use vowels in messages will hopefully be available in version 2.0
What does "app" mean?
Is it "All Privacy Publication"? Is TikTok implementing an unusual form of data un-privacy that's vastly different from some much stuff these days? It might well be doing that but if we are using Google, Windows, Apple etc etc etc etc then is the environment similar? It seems that everything we do these days is aimed at collecting information and then sending adverts or malware.
I did a search on Google last week to see if there was a Biggles book available that I don't have and now I'm getting junkmails from "Biggles" ... I even see emails from my mothers name too - she's 100 and has never used computers at all, clearly whatever I do is being monitored and probably sold.