TikTok has announced it has brought in a security firm to monitor its European data controls and protections.

The move comes after the video-sharing platform faced a wave of bans from governments and public bodies around the world over security concerns.

The company, which is owned by Chinese company ByteDance, said it had enlisted European security company NCC Group to independently audit its data controls and protections and that two additional data centres in Norway and Ireland are currently under construction.

NCC Group will monitor data coming in and out of the secure environment to independently validate that only approved employees can access limited data types, TikTok said, noting that the company will also perform ongoing security assessments of the new security gateways it is building around European user data, its app, datacentres, and other TikTok infrastructure.

“Our objective scrutiny, monitoring and assurance means platform users in Europe and the UK can have confidence in the enhanced data security standards that TikTok is setting, which go above and beyond European regulatory requirements,” said Stephen Bailey, global director of privacy at NCC Group.

TikTok and NCC Group added that in the coming months, they would engage with policymakers across Europe to explain how the “comprehensive system” will work in practice.

Reports recently emerged that US president Joe Biden’s announcement that the US would curb China investment due to factors including concerns over TikTok’s data collection practices.

Governments in the UK, New Zealand, and Australia have also recently banned the technology on work devices, while Scottish parliament strongly advised its MSPs to remove TikTok from their phones.

TikTok was earlier this year hit with a £12.7 million penalty from the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) over the misuse of children’s data.

Given that TikTok has an age limit of 13, the ICO said that it also failed to roll out sufficient checks to identify and remove underage users.

According to the organisation, an estimated one million under 13s were inappropriately granted access to the platform, with TikTok collecting and using their data.

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