TikTok is owned by Chinese technology company ByteDance and has come under fire since the company acknowledged that certain employees had access to user data in the United States and Europe.

Fear of data theft

More and more governments and parliaments are banning TikTok on their employees’ work phones and other business devices out of fear of data theft and espionage. For example, last week D66, ChristenUnie and Party for the Animals called on all political parties in the Netherlands to stop using TikTok until the social media platform resolves all safety issues.

Theo Bertram, vice president of European public policy at TikTok, acknowledged that there is “genuine concern” among Western governments about China. “I think there is a higher obligation on us to demonstrate how we secure user data.”

Saved myself

According to him, TikTok will work in the same way in Europe as it does in the United States. In that country, where TikTok is no longer allowed on many civil servants’ phones and tablets, a special deal has been signed with Oracle.

The company ensures that American users’ data is stored on servers within the United States itself and does not leave the country.

New data center

“We are working on three new data centers and we will also work with partners,” Bertram said of the approach in Europe, without naming partners and providing further details.

TikTok has around 150 million users in Europe, 25 million of which are in the UK. This app has more than one billion users worldwide.