Jerome Laxale: Ryde’s TikToking mayor grilled over app’s security threat
A Sydney mayor has been grilled over his use of popular app TikTok. Not for his shocking dance moves, but for the security threat the Chinese-owned app poses. SEE COUNCILLOR’S CONCERNS HERE.
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Ryde Labor Mayor Jerome Laxale’s council peers are calling for a security investigation into his use of the Chinese app, TikTok, questioning whether the application could be scraping sensitive local government data from the mayor’s phone.
Liberal Cr Jordan Lane hit out at Cr Laxale’s use of the app after NewsLocal uncovered footage of him dancing in his mayoral chains and robe for the viral trend which has now been viewed more than 2200 times.
Councillor Lane questioned whether the “robe-gate” dance, as it was referred to on the social media platform by the mayor, was a breach of council’s code of conduct.
“Assuming the TikTok app is installed on his Council phone, or another phone that has access to council information such as Outlook emails, commercially sensitive information or private citizen’s personal details could easily be accessed by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) via spyware installed with the app,” Cr Lane told NewsLocal. “Under Chinese law, Chinese companies — of which TikTok is one — can also be compelled to hand over this data to the government.
“I intend to formally raise the threats associated with apps like TikTok with council.”
Cr Lane described the use of the app by the mayor as a “massive weakness in our security protections”, and called on Cr Laxale to be extra vigilant.
“Whether deliberately or inadvertently, none of us should be contributing to the rising threat of foreign influence,” he said.
General manager George Dedes did not respond to several request for comment, from both NewsLocal and councillor Lane, on the mayor’s potential breach of the council’s code of conduct.
A spokeswoman for TikTok hit back at claims there couldbe a privacy breach.
“TikTok does not share information of our users in Australia with any foreign government, including the Chinese Government, and would not do so if asked. We place the highest importance on user privacy and integrity,” she said,
“TikTok Australia user data is stored in Singapore, and our Chief Information Security Officer has outlined our efforts to minimise data access across regions. Similar to industry peers, we will continue to drive our goal of limiting the number of employees who have access to user data and the scenarios where data access is enabled.
“Although we already have controls in place to protect user data, we will continue to focus on adding new technologies and programs focused on global data residency, data movement, and data storage access protections worldwide.”
Cr Laxale was contacted for comment on the security threat the app poses, however, he did not respond.