Senior UK MP warns users off Chinese-run TikTok app: ‘our data is a key vulnerability’
- Conservative head of UK parliament’s foreign affairs committee warns of vulnerability on phones with TikTok
- TikTok said it was ‘enjoyed by millions’ of people across the UK, and ‘they can trust us with their data’
The head of an influential parliamentary committee in Britain on Sunday advised people not to use the Chinese social media app TikTok because of data security concerns.
“There is a reason why China has this app,” Conservative MP Alicia Kearns, who chairs parliament’s foreign affairs committee, told Sky News television.
“Our data is a key vulnerability and China is building a tech-totalitarian state on the back of our data. So we have to get far more serious about protecting ourselves.”
Kearns referred in passing to the recent incident in which the US shot down a Chinese balloon off its Atlantic coast. China has denied US allegations that it was being used for espionage purposes.
Kearns said the bigger concern was “data penetration” via Chinese companies, and the way Beijing was using that data to intimidate “those who sought refuge in the UK and around the world”.
Asked if she was saying people should delete TikTok from their phones, she answered: “Without question … It is not worth having that vulnerability on your phone.”