TikTok Canada’s closure will make privacy probes difficult: watchdog

Privacy Commissioner Philippe Dufresne told MPs the government's order to windup TikTok's Canadian operations over national security concerns won't impact his own investigation.

The ordered closure of TikTok’s Canadian operations over national security concerns will make it more difficult to force the company to cooperate with privacy investigations, Canada’s privacy commissioner said Tuesday.

Philippe Dufresne testified to MPs on the House of Commons ethics committee who are scrutinizing the federal government’s order last month that TikTok Canada wind up its operations following a national security review.

The government hasn’t shared the specific national security risks that led to the windup order, but has said it won’t prevent Canadians from using the app.

The company filed documents in Federal Court in Vancouver last Thursday to challenge the government’s order.

Dufresne — whose office and provincial counterparts are currently investigating whether TikTok unlawfully collected and shared younger users’ information — said privacy laws allow his office to seek a Canadian court order to force a company to provide evidence and testimony during an investigation.

“Certainly in terms of compelling powers, if there’s a refusal to provide us with documentation, it’s easier if the organization is in Canada,” where that order can be enforced by Canadian authorities, he said.

Dufresne said his office, which has no enforcement powers itself, can ask a foreign company to cooperate in an investigation if there is a provable “real and substantive connection to Canada,” such as Canadian users of an app or service.

“Where the issue could come up is in terms of enforcing it,” he said. “If all the assets are in another country then it becomes an issue of private international law, where you seek to have another court, another country, enforce the decision of Canadian courts.”