The Czech cyber watchdog issued a warning on Wednesday about using TikTok, joining other Western authorities that consider the Chinese‑owned video‑sharing app a security threat. TikTok has come under growing scrutiny in many countries over concerns that the app may give Chinese authorities access to sensitive user data.
The Czech National Cyber and Information Security Agency (NUKIB) warned that TikTok could pose a threat if installed on “devices accessing critical information and communication infrastructure.” The agency said it is “concerned about a potential security threat stemming from the use of TikTok primarily due to the amount of user data that is collected by the app as well as the way the data is handled.” NUKIB added that its worries are heightened because TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, “falls under the legal jurisdiction of the People’s Republic of China.”
In the United States, lawmakers have introduced a bill to ban the app, and government workers are already prohibited from installing it on their devices. Civil servants at the European Union, as well as in Canada and Denmark, are also barred from having TikTok on their phones. Although the Czech Republic is part of the EU, it has not introduced a ban so far.
A report published last year by the Czech national intelligence agency BIS singled out China as a major threat to Czech cyberspace. “Chinese technologies penetrating important networks of state infrastructures… can be evaluated as a major security threat,” the report stated.
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