Ottawa –
The government is considering potential threats from other social media applications after banning TikTok from the mobile devices of federal employees for privacy and security reasons.
In February, the government announced that the popular app TikTok posed an unacceptable level of risk to privacy and security.
Finance Committee Secretariat spokesman Martin Potvin said the government is conducting extensive research into social media applications on business devices and will share the results as they become available.
Potvin said the Canadian government is working to improve Canada’s cybersecurity by identifying threats and vulnerabilities, including from social media platforms, to ensure systems and networks are protected.
An internal government memo says the most effective way to minimize the risk is to prevent employees from installing social media apps on their work phones.
The memo, published under the Access to Information Act, says such apps collect vast amounts of potentially identifiable information about users, including location information, internet protocol addresses and contact information.
This report by the Canadian Press Agency was first published on July 13, 2023.
