Alberta, Calgary ban TikTok from government devices | 24CA News
The Alberta authorities and the City of Calgary are becoming a member of the federal authorities in banning TikTok on all government-issued cellular gadgets, a spokesperson confirmed to QR Calgary on Wednesday.
“As part of our commitment to ensuring the integrity of all government IT devices, we have conducted a risk assessment of TikTok and have decided to remove and ban the application from all government devices,” mentioned Melissa Crane, Alberta’s press secretary for expertise and innovation.
“This will include all desktops, laptops, and mobile devices such as tablets and smartphones.”
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There have been no reported incidents of spying or info breaches ensuing from using TikTok and the Alberta authorities is banning the app as a “proactive step” to safeguard its community safety, Crane added.
“We will be automating the removal of TikTok from government devices, though staff are encouraged to remove the application immediately,” the press secretary mentioned.
The City of Calgary additionally mentioned it’s going to ban TikTok from all metropolis gadgets efficient Wednesday.
“Following recent decisions from the government of Canada, the government of Alberta, the European Union and the United States government to block the use of TikTok on their organizations’ devices, the City of Calgary will be removing access to TikTok from city devices on Wednesday, March 1 to protect the city’s information and technology environment against significant security and privacy threats,” mentioned a metropolis spokesperson.
Alberta isn’t the one province to ban TikTok from its gadgets.
The Quebec authorities’s cybersecurity minister additionally introduced on Monday that the province will prohibit the app on government-issued gadgets as a “preventative measure.”
“In light of research and analysis made regarding the use of TikTok, it seems necessary to apply the precautionary principle and to no longer allow the installation and use of this application for the moment,” Éric Caire mentioned in a press release.
The transfer comes after federal Treasury Board President Mona Fortier introduced Monday that TikTok shall be faraway from federally issued cellular gadgets after a evaluate discovered that the app presents an “unacceptable level of risk to privacy and security.”
TikTok’s knowledge assortment strategies on cellular gadgets present “considerable access” to the cellphone’s contents, the federal authorities mentioned, however there isn’t any proof that authorities info has been compromised.
Both the U.S. and the European Union made comparable strikes towards TikTok, which has hyperlinks to the Chinese authorities. The privateness issues stem from a Chinese legislation that requires firms to co-operate with Beijing if requested.
The federal privateness commissioner introduced final Thursday that their workplace will be part of privateness watchdogs in Quebec, British Columbia and Alberta to “jointly investigate the short-form video streaming application,” a submit on the federal watchdog’s web site mentioned.
Global News reached out to the City of Edmonton with a request for remark.
— with information from Global News’ Rachel Gilmore and Kalina Laframboise.
© 2023 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
