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The French government announced on Friday March 24 the ban on the installation and use of “recreational” applications such as TikTok or Netflix on the work phones of the 2.5 million state civil servants , due to cybersecurity and data protection risks. The Minister of Public Service, Stanislas Guerini, clarified that the banned applications are linked in particular to games, streaming and social networks, as well as Twitter.
The ban, effective immediately, does not affect the personal phones of civil servants and those who wish to use one of these applications for institutional purposes will have to request an exemption from the digital directorate of their ministry. However, no unified sanction is foreseen in case of violation of the prohibition and the possible sanctions will have to be decided “at the managerial level” of each ministry.
The move follows other institutions and governments that have also banned or restricted the use of TikTok on work devices, due to concerns over a 2017 Chinese law requiring local businesses to hand over personal data that is personal to authorities upon request. would be a matter of national security. The Chinese government, however, has denied the accusations, saying it has never asked or will ask companies or individuals to collect or hand over data to it from overseas in a way that would violate local laws. .
By banning these applications, France follows the global trend of strengthening digital security in public administrations, with the objective of protecting the sensitive and confidential information of governments and their agents.
