The head of Canada’s intelligence agency says the Chinese government can access TikTok user data

Canada’s security agency is trying to dissuade Canadians from using TikTok, telling users their data is “available to the Chinese government.”

In an interview with CBC News that will air Saturday, David Vigneault, director of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, said that “there is a very clear strategy on the part of the Chinese government…to be able to acquire…personal information.” from around the world,” CBC reports.

“They use big data analysis, they have amazing computer farms that process the data, they develop artificial intelligence… based on the use of this data,” added Mr. Vigneault.

The Chinese government’s ability to access user data is at the forefront of U.S. efforts to regulate — and potentially even ban — the app. Congress passed a bill that would ban TikTok unless it divests from its Beijing-based parent company, ByteDance, in April. TikTok sued the U.S. government over the law in May, arguing that the impending ban was unconstitutional.

TikTok has previously claimed that staff in China were unable to access US and European user data. The company has undertaken two massive corporate restructuring efforts – Project Texas and Project Clover, referencing US and European efforts respectively – to separate user data from China. US user data is hosted in Oracle’s cloud infrastructure and is not intended to be accessible to anyone outside the US, although a recent report from Fortune suggests that efforts to secure US user data have been “largely cosmetic.”

“These claims are not supported by any evidence, and the fact is that TikTok has never shared Canadian user data with the Chinese government, nor would we if asked,” Gate said -TikTok spokesperson Danielle Morgan. The edge.