TikTok is facing the question of how much Irish user data its latest €600 million Irish data center will share with Chinese authorities.
The facility, to be located on Echelon’s data center campus in Dublin, will process Irish and European user data from 2023.
But TikTok has declined to say how much data will be sent from the facility to its parent company Bytedance in China.
Ireland’s data protection commissioner launched a wide-ranging probe into TikTok’s data transfers to China in September, while Europe’s influential data protection regulator criticized the Chinese government’s “broad and unrestricted access to personal data” and questioned the legitimacy of data transfers there.
Last week, the EU and the US tentatively agreed on an agreement to legitimize transatlantic data transfers against EU fears of indiscriminate American surveillance of European citizens’ personal data.
China’s state access to data on local servers has previously forced TikTok to distance itself from the Chinese government.
But TikTok, which employs nearly 2,000 people in Dublin and is expected to add another 1,000, is currently promoting Chinese-Mandarin translators for its Dublin office to “facilitate effective communication between functions and regions” and “translate a variety of documents.” translate”. Technology, management and strategy.
The company states that it shares Irish users’ information within its group of companies for activities such as cloud hosting, security, content moderation and research and development.
A spokesman declined to comment specifically on what data is transferred from Dublin to China. However, the spokesman said that the company has not provided any user data directly to the Chinese government.
“We have never been asked to provide TikTok user data to the Chinese government, nor have we ever provided any data to it,” the spokesman said. “This is also reflected in our semi-annual transparency reports, in which we provide details of all government requests we receive for user data.”
TikTok’s Dublin base houses a large number of content moderators who are responsible for content and account removals.
According to a recent CyberSafeKids survey of 4,000 primary school children, the social networking giant is now used by nearly half of Irish children aged 8 to 12.
According to recent usage figures, it has overtaken competitors like Instagram among children and young people.
