Irish Data Protection Commissioner Helen Dixon will meet the director of the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) today, Tuesday, March 7, over the potential safety issues linked to using TikTok in Ireland.
he meeting is happening as the Government seeks views on whether to follow the European Commission and US government agencies in banning TikTok from staff smartphones for security reasons.
Speaking to Independent.ie, Ms Dixon said that while no government minister has directly raised the issue with her, the National Cyber Security Centre “has made contact as they have indicated this is an area of interest to discuss”.
In addition to US government agencies and the European Commission, TikTok has faced security restrictions from official bodies in Canada, India and Taiwan, with reviews currently under way in the Netherlands and Denmark.
The Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) currently has two investigations into TikTok in process, including a probe into whether data is being improperly sent to China, home of TikTok’s parent firm, Bytedance. Ms Dixon said a draft decision on the investigation is expected in the coming months.
Europe’s GDPR laws place restrictions on the transfer of personal data out of the EU to regimes that do not protect privacy to the same standard as the EU.
TikTok, which is the most used social media app among Irish teenagers, came under fire last year for unlawfully accessing US user data from China, something it said it does not normally do.
However, Ms Dixon said the growing number of bans in western countries is unlikely to affect the outcome of her office’s data privacy investigation.
“The European Commission ban [on TikTok] for its own officials is clearly a different set of issues,” she said.
“With the European Commission, it was their security department that brought forward the recommendation that a ban be instituted for officials.
“Those broader issues of potential espionage and whatever else is in the security department’s recommendation clearly go beyond the individual circumstances of the transfer we’re looking at.
“There may be some convergence [with our investigation] if we had the intelligence that some of the sovereign nations that have made decisions are relying upon, but no classified information has been shared with the DPC.”
A spokesperson for the NCSC declined to comment specifically on the DPC meeting. However, she said that the NCSC’s role is to “issue guidance to government departments and office holders on the security of mobile devices. This guidance is based on risk assessments appropriate to the circumstances and is kept under continuous review by the NCSC”.
Data Protection Commissioner (DPC) for Ireland Helen Dixon. Photo: Gareth Chaney/Collins
The spokesperson added that the NCSC’s security advice “takes a vendor- and technology-neutral approach, making security recommendations based on evidence and risk assessments”.
The wave of government and institutional bans on TikTok’s smartphone app rests on fears that the Chinese government may be able to access and influence TikTok’s algorithms.
TikTok has always denied any association with the Chinese government, insisting that it would refuse any requests made for access from the authoritarian state.
“We are disappointed with this decision, which we believe to be misguided and based on fundamental misconceptions,” a spokesperson said of the European Commission ban.
TikTok employs over 3,000 people in Ireland and is currently planning a second data centre here to serve its European operations.