The Saskatchewan Government is banning TikTok from all government-owned devices, pending the results of a federal threat assessment.
The federal government and other provinces have already done the same.
The decision came after a review by the chief information officer of Canada.
The ban will apply to all ministries, crowns and agencies, and the government caucus.
Cybersecurity expert Brennen Schmidt said it’s no surprise the Saskatchewan government is making the same moves as the rest of the country.
“I think this really does open up a broader conversation to ask questions like how our government specifically manages devices and just how much oversight is there on these devices and what kind of applications do people potentially have access to that shouldn’t be on those devices to begin with.”
The ‘enable’ feature is often where the trouble begins.
“As you start giving increased abilities for these types of applications to get access to your phone, you’re opening things up like potentially your camera roll, you are opening up access to your video, accessing the microphone contacts,” Schmidt said.
Canada’s federal privacy watchdog also announced on Thursday that it is launching a joint investigation into TikTok with three provincial counterparts.
The investigation, the privacy commissioner’s office said, will dig into whether TikTok’s practices are “in compliance” with Canadian privacy legislation and whether “meaningful consent is being obtained for the collection, use and disclosure of personal information.”
Of particular concern to the watchdogs is the privacy of the younger Canadians, who dominate the use of the application in the country.
Saskatchewan is still consulting with the provincial privacy commissioner on the next steps.
— with files from Global News’ Rachel Gilmore