November 29, 2022
TikTok’s data collection practices and admission that staff in China can access user information make the app a risk to national security and is a major reason why it is banned on departmental devices, a senior Home Affairs official says.
Department of Home Affairs deputy secretary Marc Ablong confirmed in Senate estimates that a security risk assessment concluded in 2020 that TikTok should not be used on department-issued corporate mobile phones.
“The risks associated with that application and the information that that application drew down, from both the device and the users’ interaction with that device, was seen as too high for us to allow its existence on departmental devices,” Mr Ablong said.
Liberal senator James Paterson said TikTok did not agree with the assessment made by the Department of Home Affairs and the Department of Defence, which also has a ban on the app for department-issued devices.
“The company says it poses no national security risks at all. You don’t share the company’s assessment?” Senator Paterson asked.
“No, we do not,” Mr Ablong replied.
“Why not?” Senator Paterson asked.
Mr Ablong said judgments by independent experts about the app itself, and TikTok’s admission that data can be accessed from mainland China “poses a risk which is too great for the department to countenance.”
In early July, TikTok was forced to admit in a letter to Senator Paterson, obtained by The Australian Financial Review, that TikTok employees around the world, including in China, can access certain data of millions of Australian users. At the time, TikTok maintained it had “strict protocols in place to protect Australian user data”.
Senator Paterson said all social media companies posed risks, but they were not all equal.
“Instagram and Facebook and Twitter are not beholden to an authoritarian government which is trying to interfere in our democracy or economically coerce us.”
China’s National Intelligence Law of 2017 requires organisations and citizens to “support, assist and co-operate with the state intelligence work”. The legislation was a major consideration for the government’s 2018 ban on Chinese telecommunications companies, including Huawei and ZTE, from providing equipment in the rollout of 5G mobile phone networks.
In September, Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil told The Sun-Herald she asked the department to investigate social media companies such as Chinese-owned TikTok, WeChat and others. This is separate to the review conducted by Home Affairs in 2020 which led to a ban of the app on its own devices.
TikTok Australia said it is “proactively and transparently” engaging with the government and agencies.
“Despite the persistent and misleading narrative from one opposition senator, as a global company, we are not unique in how we operate,” TikTok said.
“Some of the best-known and trusted Australian companies openly state in their privacy policies that they share Australian user information with employees and third parties around the world. These organisations often collect sensitive data like financial information, medical records, legal information and more.”
It came after the Financial Review in July, working with Canberra-based cybersecurity and intelligence firm Internet 2.0, found that the app, among a range of things, checked a user’s device location at least once an hour, mapped a device’s installed apps, and continued to ask a user to access their contacts even if originally rejected.
“We expect to have the study and review completed by the first quarter of next year. The review will look at the security implications of TikTok,” Mr Ablong said.
“It will look at the complete relationship with TikTok with Australia and the challenges or otherwise that might be posed.”
TikTok said its global security specialists met with the department last week and the conversation was “extremely constructive”.
“As we have previously stated, user data is stored in the US and Singapore, and (consistent with best practice) access to that data is subject to a series of robust controls. We have never shared user data with the Chinese government, nor would we if asked.”
TikTok said it was committed to continue building on its efforts to be a trusted and reliable partner, through transparency and cooperation.
“Official government advice, referenced in parliament earlier this year, clearly states that ‘social media and messaging apps including Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Messenger, Pinterest, Reddit, Snapchat, Telegram, TikTok, Twitter, WeChat, WhatsApp, YouTube and others, can pose risks to the security and privacy of individuals and organisations’,” it said.
