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TikTok employees in five different countries, including China, can access the data of New Zealand users, as privacy concerns grow over the video-sharing app.
The social media giant, owned by Chinese company ByteDance, has maintained data from New Zealand is stored in Singapore and United States, with access only approved by its “global security organisation led out of the US.”
Newstalk ZB can now reveal that engineering teams around the world are able to get this access sign-off, including workers in the United States, China, the United Kingdom, Singapore and Ireland.
A spokesperson for TikTok told ZB “strict policies and procedures” are in place to “limit internal access to user data”.
“There is nothing remarkable about a global technology company employing a global workforce – including employees based in China – nor are overseas data flows unique to us,” they said.
But overseas jurisdictions are cracking down on TikTok, amid long-standing fears that China could use the platform to harvest users’ data.
It has prompted New Zealand’s Parliament to consider specifically banning the app on Government devices, following the lead of other international partners.
TikTok and Beijing have repeatedly denied any allegations of wrongdoing.
Andrew Little, the minister responsible for New Zealand’s Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB), said intelligence agencies do not have the legal mandate to widely ban apps.
“The role of the GCSB is to provide information security policy and guidance to Government agencies”, he said.
“Kiwis should take a cautious approach to sharing personal information when installing any app, and always check privacy settings,” he said.
GCSB Minister Andrew Little. Photo / Mark Mitchell
In the US and Canada, TikTok is being banned on all government-issued mobile devices. Privacy regulators in Canada have also launched an investigation into data collection on the video-sharing platform.
The European Parliament has prohibited the app from staff phones.
Responding to questions about the US ban, China’s foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said the country firmly opposes “those wrong actions”.
“How unsure of itself can the world’s top superpower be to fear a young people’s favourite app like that? The US has been over-stretching the concept of national security and abusing state power to suppress foreign companies,” she said.
New Zealand’s Parliamentary Service Chief Executive Rafael Gonzalez Montero said he’s “aware of international decisions on the installation of the app TikTok on public servants’ devices.”
“The topic is being considered however no decisions have yet been made,” he said.
Asked about the issue on Wednesday, Prime Minister Chris Hipkins said he had “no announcements to make on that today”.
In 2020, New Zealand MPs and parliamentary staff were strongly advised to remove TikTok from any devices on which they accessed their parliamentary email.
Last year, then-Speaker of the House Trevor Mallard issued a memo to MPs, warning against using the app on Parliamentary Service devices as it may “pose a security risk”, and data “could be accessed by Byte Dance (the owner of TikTok) and the Chinese government.”
A spokesperson for TikTok said New Zealand data is based in Singapore and the United States, and the company “continues to be diligent” in meeting data security standards.
“TikTok will continue to build on our efforts to be trusted and reliable partners, through transparency and co-operation with the New Zealand Government”, they said.
“Like many global technology companies, TikTok has product development and engineering teams all over the world – including in the United States, China, the United Kingdom, Singapore and Ireland – collaborating to deliver the best product experience for our community of users.
But after further questioning over who might be granted access to data by TikTok’s security team, the spokesperson confirmed New Zealand user information could go around the world.
“It is correct that TikTok user data, including data of New Zealand users, is accessible to TikTok’s global engineering teams.”
They claimed that their “practices don’t differ in any meaningful way to those of our peers, or indeed, to the practices of many large Australian and New Zealand businesses.”
New Zealand Privacy Commissioner Michael Webster said he’s keeping a close eye on developments overseas.
“We are not currently investigating TikTok. However, we are watching the actions of our counterparts with interest”, he said.
“One of the advantages of having a network of global data protection authorities is we can all observe each other’s work, and we can potentially work alongside other regulators where issues affecting New Zealanders are identified.”
