TikTok moves user data from Europe to a new data center in Ireland
TikTok has announced the launch of its first European data center – at least partially – as it moves user data to a new center in Ireland. The data migration is expected to be completed by Q4 2024.
According to dev.ua, the data center in Ireland was supposed to be launched in early 2022. Then the opening was postponed to the end of last year, and then again until 2023.
The company confirmed that although the data migration has already begun, it will probably not be completed until Q4 2024. By this time, the company is to launch two more centers: one also in Ireland and the other in Norway. The latter will operate entirely on a renewable energy source.
Until the new data centers are fully operational, TikTok will store the personal data of its European users, including those from the European Union, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom, in a special secure enclave located in the United States.
Earlier this year, a number of institutions decided to ban the use of the TikTok app on work devices, including the UK government, the European Parliament, the European Commission, and the Council of the EU.
The key security concern of European officials is that the Chinese state may have access to the data that TikTok stores about its users.
According to detector.media, the company that owns TikTok, according to its promises, is to open another data center in Ireland and one in the Hamar region of Norway. The data of more than 150 million European users will be moved through one of these three centers.
Theo Bertram, TikTok’s vice president of public policy for Europe, said that as part of this effort, a third-party cybersecurity company, NCC Group, was invited to independently audit TikTok’s data center.
TikTok said that NCC Group will detect and respond to any “suspicious or abnormal access attempts” and will work to improve security.
In the coming months, TikTok and NCC Group are to present Project Clover to policymakers across Europe to explain how the system will work in practice.
Obviously, TikTok is very concerned about the threats of total blocking of the social network because of its country of origin, and is trying to ease sanctions against itself and continue to operate in Western countries.
