Kelowna 
The federal government is banning the social media application TikTok on government-issued mobile devices effective February 28.
According to the news release by the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat, the government has decided to remove and block TikTok from mobile devices used by government officials as a precautionary measure.
The federal government says TikTok has significant access to the contents of a mobile device through its data collection methods and that the decision was made due to concerns about the legal regulations governing the collection of information from mobile devices.
While Ottawa is not banning TikTok for the wider public, the federal government is asking Canadians to “make an informed choice on their own before deciding what tools to use.”
The statement by the President of the Treasury Board, Mona Fortier announcing the ban of the use of the TikTok application on government-issued mobile devices reads, “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.
“While the risks of using this application are clear, we have no evidence at this point that government information has been compromised.
“For the broader public, the decision to use a social media application or platform is a personal choice. However, the Communications Security Establishment’s Canadian Centre for Cyber Security (Cyber Centre) guidance strongly recommends that Canadians understand the risks and make an informed choice on their own before deciding what tools to use.”
Canada says the decision is consistent with the policies of other countries.
