Blainville bans TikTok on its employees’ devices

In light of the directive issued by the Union des municipalités du Québec (UMQ) and for the sake of cybersecurity, the City of Blainville prohibited its personnel from using and downloading the TikTok application on mobile devices belonging to the municipality.

This directive was in effect immediately and until further notice. This measure is temporary and was put in place as a preventive measure to ensure the confidentiality of the data.

TikTok – City of Blainville

The City of Blainville’s TikTok account was officially launched in January 2023. To date, nearly thirty videos have been posted, with an average of 7,000 views each.

The city of Blainville follows on the example of the federal and municipal governments banning the app from all government cellphones and devices.

TikTok facing global backlash

Cybersecurity and Digital Security Minister Eric Caire announced the new guidelines on Monday afternoon, February 27th, after Ottawa had already said the mobile app would be banned from government devices starting February 28.

“The ban is precautionary and there is no evidence that a foreign country is spying on government officials through this app,” Caire said. “The security of information and the protection of data held by public administration bodies remains a top priority for the Government of Quebec, which is why we are adopting this precautionary measure.” The federal government banned TikTok from its mobile devices days after federal and provincial privacy commissioners launched an investigation into the social media platform.The decision follows a review by Canada’s chief information officer, which found that TikTok presented an “unacceptable level of risk to privacy and security.”  The US and European Union recently banned government personnel from using TikTok on work devices. A TikTok spokesperson said the social media company is always open to meeting with government officials to discuss how to protect Canadians’ privacy.

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