If you live in the European Economic Area (EEA), UK or Switzerland and are a TikTok user, your social network data is stored on servers UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, in accordance with the company’s privacy policy. Additionally, until now, certain ByteDance employees in some countries, including China, were able to access it remotely.

As we can see, this is a reality that has not gone unnoticed by local regulators. Under the guise of offering privacy guarantees to residents of the region, Europe has put pressure on Asian companies to manage data locally, something that began to materialize this Tuesday.

Project Clover takes its first steps

ByteDance’s response to increased scrutiny from European privacy advocates was The Clover Projecta project consisting of two buildings Data Center in Ireland and one in Norway so user data is in local orbit. After several delays, the first state-of-the-art infrastructure is ready.

Originally announced in early 2022 and delayed until later that year, the Dublin data center has just launched. In this way, TikTok has begun the complex process of migrating data from users in the EEA, Switzerland and the UK to new data centers located in Europe.

However, for the migration to complete 100%, the other two data centers must complete. In this case, point from ByteDancethis will happen for fourth trimester this year, so we will have to wait to find out whether the Chinese company will adhere to the specified project schedule this time.

One of the biggest concerns around the dynamics of TikTok in the region is the possibility that employees from other countries can access user data. The company has also tried to respond to this to convince regulators. How do they do it? Opening its doors to external audits.

ByteDance itself chose the private company that will be in charge of overseeing its data practices from now on. What we’re talking about NCC Groupa British company they present as “a long-established and globally respected cybersecurity company with offices across Europe.”

The social network claims that the NCC Group will monitor data traffic in real time to identify and respond to any suspicious access. They will also collaborate so that user data in Europe can only be made available to authorized employees who are subject to “strict independent monitoring and verification.”

At TechCrunch they show it that, while the migration process is in progress, the relevant user data will be stored in a isolated system in the United States. However, unlike what happened before, this service will not be available to Chinese employees. Now it’s time to wait to see if these moves work to convince European regulators.

Images: Eyestix Studios

At Xataka: The government does not have access to your phone to send you alerts about DANA. It’s your phone that has access to the Government