The federal government was allegedly warned by a Canadian intelligence official that the Beijing-linked video-sharing app TikTok was misleading governments and the general public about its data-harvesting methods nearly half a year before Ottawa banned the app from all federal devices, according to an internal briefing note.
A document prepared for the government in September 2022 by the Privy Council Office’s (PCO) Intelligence Assessment Secretariat said that TikTok was giving “false public and governmental reassurances about data sovereignty and security.”
The brief, which was obtained by the Toronto Star through an Access to Information request, was prepared about five months before cabinet announced in late February that it would be banning TikTok from all government-issued devices over security concerns….