Expert: Canada bans TikTok on all government devices

Ottawa announced it is banning TikTok from all government-issued mobile devices in response to privacy and security concerns. The federal government said it will also block the Chinese-owned social media app from being downloaded on official devices in the future. The new rule follows the app’s intense scrutiny in the United States and also concerns of covert Chinese influence on Canadian affairs. (Globe and Mail) 

Here is an expert from McGill University who can comment on this topic:  

Benjamin Fung, Full Professor, School of Information Studies 

“Technical analysis shows that TikTok excessively collects data from its users. Though the decision is a bit late, I welcome the Canadian government to ban TikTok from government-owned devices. The general public should understand the risk of running this app on their devices.” 

Benjamin Fung is a Full Professor in the School of Information Studies and the Canada Research Chair in Data Mining for Cybersecurity. He has over 90 refereed publications that span the research areas of data mining, privacy protection, cyberforensics, services computing, and building engineering. 

ben.fung [at] mcgill.ca (English, Cantonese)