Under the US plan, TikTok will store data from American users in the US on servers run by the tech firm Oracle. TikTok’s European proposals mirror a plan to reassure the US about user data, called Project Texas. It said European user data could be used to conduct checks on the performance of its algorithms, which recommend content to users, and tracking vexatious automated accounts. Last year TikTok confirmed employees outside the continent, including in China, could access user data to ensure their experience of the platform was “consistent, enjoyable and safe”. TikTok said it would introduce “pseudonymisation” of personal data so an individual could not be identified without additional information.
Under Clover, TikTok’s data controls and transfer of data outside of the continent will be monitored by a third-party European cybersecurity firm, although the company has yet to disclose the name of its security partner. The use of the Irish and Norwegian data servers will cost TikTok €1.2bn a year. TikTok had said it would store data in two servers in Ireland but announced on Wednesday that it would also use a datacentre in Norway for the same purpose under Project Clover. TikTok, which has more than 1 billion users worldwide, has 150 million in Europe. “The Chinese government have never asked us for data, and if they would we would refuse to do so,” said Theo Bertram, TikTok’s vice-president of government relations and public policy in Europe.
TikTok, which stores its global user data in the US and Singapore, has denied its data or algorithms can be accessed or manipulated by the Chinese government. On Tuesday the White House gave its backing to a Senate bill that would give the administration the power to ban TikTok and on Wednesday the FBI director Christopher Wray told a Senate hearing that the app “screams” of national security concerns. TikTok is under pressure in the US and Europe over its links to China via its Beijing-based parent, ByteDance.
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