In an email to students, the University of Wisconsin announced its plan to comply with the UW System’s direction to remove TikTok from all university-owned devices, including Macs, iOS and tablets.
This email comes a month after the UW System announced that TikTok will be banned on all system-owned devices, though the details of this banning were not released.
According to the email, this ban is a result of discussions regarding cybersecurity and concerns over the security of the app.
Gov. Tony Evers announced a TikTok ban in Executive Order #184 from state-owned devices early in January. Evers’ decision came after President Joe Biden banned the app from federally-owned devices.
The TikTok ban is a result of UW responding to a directive from UW System President Jay Rothman, UW Chief Technology Officer Todd Shechter said in an email statement.
“Thankfully we were able to get an exemption to the directive for academic research projects that are using TikTok as part of their research — I was glad for this exemption,” Shechter said. “There are a number of research projects happening on our campus where TikTok is studied or the impacts of TikTok (and other social media apps) are studied.”
Nationally, security concerns have developed recently over the way TikTok stores and uses its data.
UW Distinguished Faculty Associate Dorothea Salo explained more about this in an email statement to The Badger Herald.
“It’s known that the government in China, like the U.S. federal government and many U.S. law-enforcement agencies at all levels, routinely surveils both its own citizens and citizens of other nations online,” Salo said. “Part of the way these governments do this is by buying or extorting data from companies that collect it, like social media platforms.
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The concern is that China is getting data about U.S. government employees through TikTok, Salo said. But, Salo noted, it may be hypocritical to pick on China and TikTok when U.S.-based Facebook has also faced data privacy criticism.
Shechter also gave his opinion on personal use of the TikTok app amid cybersecurity concerns.
“As to people being concerned on their personally owned devices, I think it’s a judgement call that each individual needs to make,” Shechter wrote. “Folks should do their own research and make informed decisions. In our message to campus we did give some helpful tips about ways to decrease risk while using TikTok, which include:
- Using a password for your TikTok account separate from other accounts.
- Register for TikTok with a unique email address not used for other matters.
- Keep the TikTok app updated to take advantage of the latest security patches.
- Monitor/minimize permissions granted when installing TikTok (access to contact lists, camera, microphone, device storage, etc.)
