Canada bans TikTok on government devices over security risks
theguardian.com
Canada bans TikTok on government devices over security risks
1–10 of 65 posts
Re: Canada bans TikTok on government devices over security risks
#2Quebec ban : https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34968699
Re: Canada bans TikTok on government devices over security risks
#3> Canada has announced it is banning TikTok from all government-issued mobile devices
This is only on work phones
Re: Canada bans TikTok on government devices over security risks
#4[flagged]
Re: Canada bans TikTok on government devices over security risks
#5My bigger question is why was this allowed on government devices in the first place? Shouldn't work phones be for work?
Re: Canada bans TikTok on government devices over security risks
#6My bigger question is why was this allowed on government devices in the first place? Shouldn't work phones be for work?
Many companies allow or even encourage using work phones privately. That way, they motivate their employees to not just switch the phone off and leave it on the desk locker in the office after finishing work.
This gives them a nice "side effect" of unlimited reachability.
That's the reason I actually power off my work phone after hours.
Re: Canada bans TikTok on government devices over security risks
#7My bigger question is why was this allowed on government devices in the first place? Shouldn't work phones be for work?
I would guess the Canadian government employ people to manage social media for various departments. They may use TikTok, both to view content to understand for research or to post in order to promote their services/role/existance. Similarly I might imagine they have Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and other apps which facilitate spreading information.
Re: Canada bans TikTok on government devices over security risks
#8> “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]
[1] Statement by Minister [The President of the Treasury Board, Mona] Fortier announcing a ban on the use of TikTok on government mobile devices https://www.canada.ca/en/treasury-board-secretariat/news/202...
Re: Canada bans TikTok on government devices over security risks
#9My bigger question is why was this allowed on government devices in the first place? Shouldn't work phones be for work?
Many companies allow or even encourage using work phones privately. That way, they motivate their employees to not just switch the phone off and leave it on the desk locker in the office after finishing work. This gives them a nice "side effect" of unlimited reachability. That's the reason I actually power off my work phone after hours.
Well, then, this is the perfect pretext to take back your time and not answer after-hours --you exchange convenience and a little money for autonomy and the gov gets its security back.
Re: Canada bans TikTok on government devices over security risks
#10So, 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.
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.
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.