Estonia's Information System Authority bans employees from downloading TikTok

Estonian Information System Authority (RIA) has banned its employees from downloading and installing the popular Chinese video-sharing app TokTok on their business phones. According to agency reports, this move was made due to security considerations following suspicions of TikTok spying on its users and using their data.

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TikTok a 'security risk'

The Estonian agency banned TikTok back in June while the app was at the height of its popularity. At the time TikTok was the fourth most downloaded app in the world with 2 billion downloads and 400 million active users.

RIA executive director for cybersecurity Tonu Tammer was quoted by ANI: "Looking at the available data, it is clear why the US sees it as a security threat. We also see problems. Evidence pointing to it being still waters that run deep is adding up,".

The Estonian agency decided to band the use of TikTok by its employees after discovering that the Chinese app was collecting information about its users and was also able to track people’s location and access the phone’s internal data. In this regard, Tanner said, "The app - in its essence - is a security risk, able to compromise the device and gain access."

TikTok is designed to make and share small video clips. The Chinese app is predominantly popular among the younger generation and is used by people across 160 countries with thousands of videos being shared in 75 different languages every day. The app is designed in a way that based on the user's previously liked videos, TikTok can predict and suggest similar videos the user would like to see.

Read: China Accuses US Of 'political Manipulation' After Trump's Order Against TikTok, WeChat

The US government under the Trump administration has long been trying to ban and discredit TikTok along with other Chines apps. The US has claimed that most Chinese apps collude with the country's Communist Party-led government.

Moreover, US President Donald Trump recently signed two executive orders banning citizens as well as US companies from making certain transactions with the Chinese parent companies of the social media apps TikTok and WeChat -- ByteDance and TenCent.

(Input Credit AN; Image - PTI)

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