So, I completely understand that gov's are concerned about an application on gov. devices being used to profile their staff. There's been plenty written about profiling people based on app. usage.<p>The bit that somewhat surprises me is the focus on TikTok, other apps are (AFAIK) capable of the exact same thing. Is the expectation that TikTok is the only app that the Chinese government have access to? this seems a bit unlikely.<p>And of course this doesn't touch on the companies that provide ad networks and other services to mobile applications, who have the ability to pull info from multiple apps at the same time, I've not seen any movement on banning those similarly.
Dumb question as a non expert, but if I'm trying to prevent bad thing from happening on my employees phones, why am I blacklisting "bad" apps instead of whitelisting "good" apps?
I don't understand why they're allowed to have <i>any</i> non essential apps, it's as mad as the UK doing national security over zoom and WhatsApp - government devices should be non-stock, vetted and secured devices, with proper MDM.<p>Is every government really this incompetent??
If the government is concerned about privacy and security risks here I dunno maybe they should pass some legislation that applies to all apps???? This is literally their job.
> “Effective February 28, 2023, the TikTok application will be removed from government-issued mobile devices. Users of these devices will also be blocked from downloading the application in the future. Following a review of TikTok, the Chief Information Officer of Canada determined that it presents an unacceptable level of risk to privacy and security.” [1]<p>[1] Statement by Minister [The President of the Treasury Board, Mona] Fortier announcing a ban on the use of TikTok on government mobile devices
<a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/treasury-board-secretariat/news/2023/02/statement-by-minister-fortier-announcing-a-ban-on-the-use-of-tiktok-on-government-mobile-devices.html" rel="nofollow">https://www.canada.ca/en/treasury-board-secretariat/news/202...</a>
My state did the same recently, my university blocks tiktok traffic on any divice connected to the school wifi now.<p>Kind of came out of nowhere for me, I heard about the security concerns but didnt think they were being taken that seriously.
Tiktok should just be banned outright. I don't know why anyone would trust an algorithm controlled by the CCP, and I don't know why western governments tolerate it.