(Reuters) – The head of Canada’s Security Intelligence Service warned Canadians against using video app TikTok, saying data gleaned from its users “is available to the government of China,” CBC News reported on Friday.
“My answer as director of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) is that there is a very clear strategy on the part of the government of China to be able to acquire personal information from anyone around the world,” CSIS director David Vigneault said in an interview to CBC that is set to air on Saturday.
Tiktok did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
Canada in September ordered a national security review of a proposal by TikTok to expand the short-video app’s business in the country. Vigneault said he will take part in that review and offer advice, CBC reported.
Earlier this month, TikTok and its Chinese parent company ByteDance sued in U.S. federal court seeking to block a law signed by President Joe Biden that would force the divestiture of the short video app used by 170 million Americans or ban it.
The law, signed by Biden on April 24, gives ByteDance until Jan. 19 to sell TikTok or face a ban. The White House has said it wants to see Chinese-based ownership ended on national security grounds but not a ban on TikTok.
(Reporting by Devika Nair in Bengaluru, Editing by Franklin Paul)
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