Project Clover: TikTok Teams Up With NCC To Ensure Data Security

TikTok has hired a British cybersecurity company, NCC (photo: dock. pexels)

TikTok has hired British cybersecurity company NCC to audit their control and data protection, as well as provide independent verification. This is done as part of the data security regime of this social media company called "Project Cover."

Several government agencies have banned the use of TikTok on their employee phones due to growing concern for the company, which is owned by Chinese company ByteDance and the potential for collecting user data by the Chinese government for its own interests.

As part of this regime, TikTok is opening three data centers - two in Ireland and one in Norway - to store user data in Europe.

Ireland's first data center is online, and TikTok has started moving data. "Other data centers will be operational until the end of 2024," said Elaine Fox, head of privacy in Europe, in a meeting with the media.

"We are not waiting for our European data center to fully operate... we have started storing our users' personal data in the EAE and UK by default in designated safe areas known as the European enclave which is currently hosted in the United States," he said.

In the coming months, TikTok and NCC say they will communicate with policymakers across Europe to explain how this system will function in practice.

TikTok announced Project Clover in March in response to growing pressure from policymakers on both sides of the Atlantic regarding data security.