With TikTok, it has outlined a new data policy designed to convince European lawmakers that it is not a security threat. Dubbed the guidelines, TikTok will see the introduction of “security gates” that control employee access to European user information and data transfers outside the continent. “This will add another level of data access control,” says TikTok. As before, data requests will also need to comply with local data protection laws.
A third-party security company will be responsible for overseeing TikTok’s new data security controls and conducting audits of the company’s data practices. The third party will also “monitor data flow” and report incidents. TikTok said it will have more information to share about the partnership soon. The company also plans to partner with other companies to implement technologies that can augment and improve the new data policy.
According to TikTok, an internal team has been working on Project Clover since last year. The company expects to implement the changes it outlined today throughout 2023 and next year. Separately, TikTok today announced plans to open two new data centers in Ireland and Norway. Both will be operated by third parties and will be powered by renewable energy. The company plans to start storing European users’ data locally starting this year, at an annual cost of €1.2 billion.
“We’re ahead of the curve on this because we have to be — because we need to earn trust,” said Theo Bertram, TikTok’s vice president of government relations and public policy for Europe. .
The announcement comes after the European Commission, the European Union’s executive wing, installed and used TikTok on work devices. It is hard to say whether the company’s new policy is enough to prevent European regulators from imposing additional restrictions on the platform. The deal TikTok made with Oracle to route US users’ traffic through the company’s cloud infrastructure appears to have done little to convince US lawmakers of the app. Whatever course of action the United States takes, it will likely push its allies in Europe to do the same.
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