Social media platforms collect, transfer and store a wide variety of personal and sensitive information, including personal identifying information, private messages, location, financial information and biometric data. These platforms have been purposefully designed to keep individuals online and engaged to reap as much data about them as possible. Through the aggregation of this data, it is possible to create detailed profiles and inferences about individuals, including their political opinions, sexual orientation, religion, income, health, or details about their families. This is true of TikTok but also of most major online platforms.
Despite the significant risks to Canadians through the potential misuse of this data, there are currently inadequate protections over how Canadians' personal data is transferred and stored, particularly outside of Canada. This threatens Canadian sovereignty and the digital security and privacy of Canadians. Personal data can be accessed by national security and law enforcement agencies in countries without sufficient legal protections, such as China. I think it is also worth adding that technology companies can experience buyouts, mergers and bankruptcy that can change where and how personal data is stored and the privacy protection it receives. Finally, malicious actors can always take advantage of data with insufficient safeguards.