Wells Fargo bans TikTok from company phones — here's why

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Wells Fargo orders employees to delete the app

tiktok on a mobile phone
(Image credit: Yalcin Sonat / Shutterstock.com)

Financial-services giant Wells Fargo has become the latest household name to ban TikTok from company-owned mobile devices.

The San Francisco-based bank has asked its employees to delete the Chinese video-sharing app if it's being used on company phones, according to a report from The Information.

Last week, e-commerce giant Amazon asked its employees to delete TikTok on any mobile device that was used to access corporate email accounts. But despite giving employees until Friday to complete this task, Amazon responded to media inquiries by saying that the email was actually sent by accident. 

It seems, however, that Wells Fargo is serious about its decision, having sent a note to all of its employees.

Privacy concerns

A Wells Fargo spokesperson told The Information that the bank's TikTok ban was the result of security and privacy concerns.

“We have identified a small number of Wells Fargo employees with corporate-owned devices who had installed the TikTok application on their device,” said the spokesperson.

“Due to concerns about TikTok’s privacy and security controls and practices, and because corporate-owned devices should be used for company business only, we have directed those employees to remove the app from their devices.”

Banning TikTok

Over the past few weeks, TikTok and its Chinese parent company Bytedance have faced a lot of negative publicity over the app's privacy.

Government officials in several countries are worried that the app, which has over 800 million users worldwide, could be used as a spy tool by Chinese intelligence agencies. 

The app has already been banned in India as part of a broader wave of anti-Chinese sentiment, and U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo recently suggested that the Washington could make a similar move.

Despite this, TikTok is adamant it doesn’t put users at risk. 

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Nicholas Fearn

Nicholas Fearn is a freelance technology journalist and copywriter from the Welsh valleys. His work has appeared in publications such as the FT, the Independent, the Daily Telegraph, The Next Web, T3, Android Central, Computer Weekly, and many others. He also happens to be a diehard Mariah Carey fan!