TikTok's secret Finnish data center stirs privacy concerns
The TikTok data processing centre construction project in Finland was kept secret for over half a year. The government learned of the investment when land was purchased for the Chinese social platform's server centre and the first building permits were issued, as reported by Yle radio.
The government found out about it too late, admitted Economy Minister Wille Rydman, who was clearly surprised. He acknowledged that information about the Chinese company's investment plans, estimated at about 1 billion euros (1.6 billion CAD), only reached him last Monday.
The facility in the city of Kouvola (about 130 kilometres northeast of Helsinki) will be built by Finnish development company Hyperco, and TikTok will be its primary user, the city announced. They emphasized that TikTok is also a tenant of similar data centres in other parts of Europe. In April, TikTok's server centre was launched in Norway.
According to Yle's findings, TikTok's investment in Finland is backed by billionaires from Dubai, who are doing business with Donald Trump in Russia and with China. The offices of Finnish President Alexander Stubb and Prime Minister Petteri Orpo did not respond to the radio's questions about this controversial project.
Due to data security and user privacy concerns, as well as fears of "espionage," many institutions in Western countries have banned the use of Chinese TikTok on official devices. These include the U.S. House of Representatives, the European Parliament, the European Commission, as well as Finland's national assembly (Eduskunta) and the cabinet.
On Friday in Ireland, TikTok's owner was fined over half a billion euros for insufficient protection of information related to passing personal data of customers from the European Economic Area to Chinese authorities. Bytedance announced it will appeal this decision.
