Canadian intelligence chief warns Canadians, including teenagers, not to use the controversial video app TikTok, as the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) can use it to monitor personal information of Canadians.
David Vigneault, Director of the Canadian Security Intelligence Services (CSIS), in an interview with Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), cautioned against the use of TikTok, stating, “As the Director of CSIS, I believe that the Chinese government has a very clear strategy… to obtain… personal information of anyone worldwide.”
Vigneault expressed concerns about the data collected from users of the application being potentially usable by the Chinese government. He emphasized that even though some may not see the importance of data on TikTok for teenagers now, in the future, this data could be used against them.
The CSIS report released prior to Vigneault’s statements warned of the CCP’s increasing foreign infiltration. The CCP leadership has introduced regulations giving the government control over data within China, requiring Chinese citizens worldwide to assist and cooperate with CCP intelligence.
Vigneault pointed out that the CCP’s ultimate goal is to protect the interests of the Communist Party, posing a threat to our way of life through various means, including big data analysis and artificial intelligence development based on collected data.
While TikTok claims its servers are not in China and are not controlled by the CCP, the U.S. government is concerned about the potential access the CCP could have to TikTok’s 170 million American users’ data. President Biden recently signed a bill requiring the sale of TikTok by its parent company ByteDance within a year, or face removal from U.S. app stores.
FBI Director Christopher Wray warned that ByteDance is controlled by the CCP, allowing Beijing authorities to manipulate algorithms on TikTok to influence Americans and potentially collect user data for traditional espionage purposes.
Despite TikTok’s denial of CCP influence on user data, former employees have shared contradicting accounts. Multiple ex-employees reported intertwined operations between TikTok and ByteDance, suggesting that the company’s independence from China is largely superficial.
Evan Turner, a former senior data scientist at TikTok, disclosed that he regularly sent spreadsheets containing hundreds of thousands of American user data to ByteDance in Beijing, contradicting TikTok’s policy of storing sensitive American data in the U.S. for local employee viewing only.
TikTok’s Canadian spokesperson, Danielle Morgan, refuted CSIS’s claims, asserting that TikTok has never shared Canadian user data with the CCP and would not comply with such requests.
Vigneault is not the only Canadian intelligence official to comment on the use of TikTok. Sami Khoury, responsible for federal government cybersecurity, cautioned Canadians against apps that could compromise their data, urging scrutiny of their data collection policies.
ByteDance has been accused of aiding the CCP in suppressing Uyghur minority groups and targeting Hong Kong protesters. In response to Biden’s bill, ByteDance is suing the U.S. government and encouraging TikTok users to do the same.
As discussions over TikTok’s risks intensify, the European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has indicated that the EU might follow the U.S. in considering a comprehensive ban on TikTok across EU countries.