International

TikTok Launches Project Clover To Assuage China Security Concerns

Published

2 years ago

Mar 9, 2023.

Haneefah

Project Clover will see a separate security company monitor data flows

TikTok plans to make it harder to identify individual users in data

The European Commission has banned the app from staff devices

Eko Hot Blog reports that TikTok has launched security measures to allay concerns it could be made to share user data with China.

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Project Clover will see a separate security company “monitor data flows” – and TikTok will make it harder to identify individual users in data.

“Security gateways” will add an extra layer of control over employee access to European user information and data transfers outside of Europe, it says.

The European Commission has banned the ByteDance-owned app from staff devices.

As part of its current effort to store European user data locally, TikTok revealed plans for two new data centres, costing a total of €1.2bn (£1.1bn) every year, in Dublin, in addition to one already announced, and the Hamar region of Norway.

Both will be renewably powered and operated by third parties.

The company has been working on Project Clover since last year.

“We’re ahead of the curve on this because we have to be – because we need to earn trust,” TikTok vice-president of government relations and public policy in Europe Theo Bertram said.