TikTok had higher hope this overview is right.

The platform has offered an replace on its “Venture Clover” knowledge separation challenge, which goals to make sure that European person knowledge just isn’t being accessed by China-based workers and officers.

Which it says is now largely in impact.

As per TikTok:

“As a part of our industry-leading initiative Venture Clover, TikTok has been constructing further protections round our European person knowledge that incorporate safety gateways to additional prohibit entry. We will now announce that the gateways that relate to worker entry to knowledge and knowledge transmission have been launched and are functioning. These gateways are designed to implement technical protocols in order that solely permitted workers can entry sure knowledge sorts. Since final summer season, for instance, new safety protocols have been in place designed to make sure that restricted knowledge saved in our new European knowledge enclave, akin to non-public movies and cellphone numbers, can’t be accessed by workers primarily based in China.”

So on the content material entrance, that covers non-public movies, that are the minority of TikTok uploads. However what about public posts?

“We’re additionally making use of applied sciences akin to pseudonymisation to de-identify allowable knowledge sorts earlier than they are often accessed by China-based workers. That is knowledge, akin to public movies or a person’s privateness settings, that should stream internationally for our app to perform and for our 150 million European customers to take part within the world TikTok group.”

As such, China-based TikTok workers, or workers from mother or father firm ByteDance, are nonetheless in a position to entry European TikTok person knowledge, and it looks as if plenty of it, however that information will probably be obscured by new processes to make sure that particular person person knowledge just isn’t re-shared again to China.

Which is seemingly according to EU knowledge rules, however it additionally probably misses a key level, in that TikTok might not essentially be used as an information gathering device, however extra a propaganda platform, the place pro-China messaging might be seeded to Western customers.

Which continues to be a contentious aspect, and there’s no definitive proof to recommend that ByteDance is manipulating person feeds in any method to promote or quash sure narratives. However on condition that ongoing China-based affect operations are trying to do that in different massive social apps, it appears doubtless that TikTok could possibly be a vector for a similar, and Venture Clover received’t essentially shield in opposition to such, primarily based on this overview.

However, it’s according to the expectations of EU officers, whereas TikTok additionally notes that cybersecurity agency NCC Group has inspected its code, and can proceed to re-examine future code updates over time.

TikTok additionally says that it’s constructing three new knowledge facilities in Europe to deal with EU person knowledge, two of which (Eire and Norway) are already lively, with the remaining middle to return on-line subsequent yr.

So, in a broader sense, TikTok is making a safer setting for managing EU person knowledge, in isolation from its Chinese language mother or father firm, with a view to meet EU necessities, and keep away from a possible sell-off push within the area, just like the U.S.

However there’s an argument to be made that the speculative menace of TikTok stays, significantly once you additionally think about that EU cybersecurity officers particularly raised considerations about Chinese language affect exercise within the lead-up to their polls earlier this yr.

So whereas Venture Clover might search to handle the important thing knowledge sharing components, I doubt it can quell all of the considerations linked to the app.   

And if TikTok is finally faraway from the U.S., I believe that there will probably be enhanced strain for different areas to comply with swimsuit.