TikTok, Netflix, Candy Crush... Since Friday, the government has been cracking down, banning the installation and use of "recreational" applications on the business phones of the 2.5 million state civil servants.
These applications present "risks in terms of cybersecurity and data protection of public officials and administration," said the entourage of Public Service Minister Stanislas Guerini, who follows in the footsteps of several Western institutions and governments that have already banned or limited the use of TikTok on professional devices. But the government has not yet drawn up a uniform list of banned applications, the measure is taken by default.
No defined sanctions for non-compliance with the ban
The ban, notified to the various ministries through a "binding" instruction according to the government, comes into force immediately, and does not concern the personal phones of state officials. Public servants who wish to use one of the banned applications for institutional communication purposes will have to apply for a derogation from their ministry's digital directorate.
In the event of a violation of the ban, no unified system of sanctions is foreseen at this stage. Any sanctions will have to be decided "at the managerial level" of each ministry, according to the services of Stanislas Guerini. The White House, the European Commission, the Canadian and British governments, among others, and other organizations have recently banned their officials from using TikTok on their work phones.
At the center of the fears is a 2017 Chinese law that requires local companies to hand over personal data that would be a matter of national security at the request of the authorities.
- Society
- TikTok
- Personal data