UK Bans TikTok from Government Mobile Phones

Britain is to ban the Chinese-owned video-sharing app TikTok from ministers' and civil servants' mobile phones, bringing the UK in line with the US and the European Commission and reflecting deteriorating relations with Beijing. From a report: The decision marks a sharp U-turn from the UK's previous position and came a few hours after TikTok said its owner, ByteDance, had been told by Washington to sell the app or face a possible ban in the country. The UK government's announcement was made on Thursday by Oliver Dowden, the Cabinet Office minister, in the Commons. He said the ban was taking place "with immediate effect."

The decision follows a review of TikTok by government cybersecurity experts at the National Cyber Security Centre, and will cover ministers' and civil servants' work phones, but not their personal phones. "This is a proportionate move based on a specific risk with government devices," Dowden added. At least two cabinet ministers use TikTok. Michelle Donelan, the science and technology secretary, and Grant Shapps, the energy security and net zero secretary have an account on the app, which is used by millions of young people and many celebrities and influencers.

Only data harvesting of allies allowed

[BardBollocks]

more FUD.

Re:

[migos]

So because allies spy on each other, we should let our adversaries do whatever they want?

If I was the UK gov

[DarkRookie2]

I would ban Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Amazon, and Apple as well. Those American companies are just as sketchy.

Re:

[DarkRookie2]

Only 398 subs. Only a minute 1:49. All the videos look to be some version of clickbait without a modicum of content.

Re:

[brunes69]

The US is part of Five Eyes. The UK is not concerned with being spied on by an American company.

Re:

[drinkypoo]

The UK is not concerned with being spied on by an American company.

Indeed, their domestic spying program depends on it.

TikTok on a work phone?

[GuB-42]

With the exception of very specific jobs (like marketing and communication), why should TikTok be on *any* work phone? Same for Facebook, Instagram, etc...

Re: TikTok on a work phone?

[bazorg]

Because Samsung includes some of these apps without us asking.

Re:

[Sesostris III]

In my experience, I've never got a vanilla work phone. The apps that are on it are those the company want on it, not the phone manufacturer. Then again, I only use my work phone for work. It would never occur to me to put TikToc on it.

Then again, it would never occur to me to put TikTok on my personal mobile either!

This is a good thing ...

[Dark$ide]

The UK can't trust China not to steal their data. So why shouldn't they ban Tik Tok on *work* phones. Work phones are by definition for work, not for play time.

Are these devices seriously unmanaged?

[BRTB]

Forget installing TikTok specifically. Or which country we're talking about. Here are some better questions.

• Why are these devices not in an MDM system with only a specific list of apps allowed?
• Why was anybody with a government-issued phone able to install TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, or any other app (social media or otherwise) without specific business need approved?

This is basic "mobile fleet management" stuff. You register all your devices to an MDM platform. Only allow certain apps to be installed, and

Re:

[UnknowingFool]

From what I understand, there might already be MDM but the UK being a large organization, their policies might not be uniform across the entire government for things not specified. This announcement is more about official policy going forward.

Re:Are these devices seriously unmanaged?

[techno-vampire]

Why was anybody with a government-issued phone able to install TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, or any other app (social media or otherwise) without specific business need approved?

Even better: have all the approved apps installed before the phone is issued, and block the installation of anything else. If the user actually needs another app installed, they have to get permission from both IT and Security and have a tech with a special password do the installation.

Schneier's blog post on this

[trawg]

Bruce Schneier wrote about this Tiktok shitshow [schneier.com] a couple weeks ago & I think what he wrote is worth reading.

The key bit is:

If we want to address the real problem, we need to enact serious privacy laws, not security theater, to stop our data from being collected, analyzed, and soldâ"by anyone. Such laws would protect us in the long term, and not just from the app of the week.

The problem is not TikTok. It's that any application can potentially harvest all this data and shoot it off to ANYONE.

This is directly empowering surveillance capitalism in companies like Facebook and Google (AD COMPANIES). They will fight tooth and nail for this to be curtailed even though it's now considered a national security risk at the highest levels of all governments.

It is

Re:

[Canberra1]

Mod up. Data for unrestricted sale is the problem. And the USA Cloud Act means USA can obtain anything. UK is also blind to Monopoly powers, while the USA seems to approve of monopolies while these 'New' companies are only babies. It is time govt phones are stripped of social media and strong ip blackholes. Naturally conducting govt business on a personal phone carry a criminal conviction.

Am I missing something?

[bn-7bc]

If the government isues iit's employees phones, pays for them and personably the assosciatedd contracts, what is the big deal with them setting rules (and enforcing them) omn what third part sw is allowed to run on them, it's their bldy phones. If they employees find the rules to restrictive there is (as far as I know( no rules preventing them from going out eng geting their own phones and contracts for their own money and running whatever sw they want on it. Ok they might not be allowed do bring those pho