By Elaine Fox, Head of Digital Regulation and Governance, Europe, TikTok.
Every year on 28th January, we mark International Data Protection Day by reflecting on how we continue to protect and empower our TikTok community to make informed decisions about their online presence. Safeguarding our community's privacy and strengthening their security remain central to everything we do. Over the past year, we’ve introduced new tools to help our community better protect their account and made continued, industry-leading investments to keep data secure. Our commitment is simple: to help TikTok users create, connect, and share with confidence.
On Data Protection Day, we're sharing the progress we’re making to strengthen trust with our global community - here are some updates from 2025:
Helping You Stay Secure - Introducing Security Checkup
In March 2025, we introduced Security Checkup, a new in-app dashboard that lets users quickly review and strengthen their account security. In just a few steps, you can add backup authentication, enable 2-Step Verification (2SV), manage logged-in devices, review alerts for suspicious activity, and use passkeys like Face ID for seamless, secure log-ins.
These features help keep accounts safer from fraud and unauthorised access, and they form a core part of how we empower our community to protect themselves online.
Strengthening European Data Security with Project Clover
Another area of investment in 2025 continued to be Project Clover, our long-term data security initiative focused on protecting user data in Europe with industry-leading safeguards. This multi-billion-euro effort is built on stringent privacy and security controls, going beyond regulatory requirements to set a new standard for data protection.
Here are some of the major milestones for Project Clover in 2025.
- European data centres: We continued our investment in European data centres, with our Norway site at Hamar coming fully online in 2025. Our Norwegian site is powered by efficient, sustainable energy. We also announced in May 2025 a €1 billion investment in Finnish data centre capacity.
- Independent security oversight: In January 2025, we extended our commitment for a further three years to work with leading European cybersecurity firm NCC Group. They independently monitor, audit, and verify our data controls, adding transparency and accountability to how data is protected.
- Technological advancement: NCC Group continued to independently test new and innovative ways of protecting users’ information, including advanced Privacy Enhancing Technologies.
You can read more about Project Clover here.
Fighting Fraud & Scams and Protecting Accounts
As part of our ongoing commitment to help our community #BeCyberSmart, we promoted stronger security habits, like 2-Step Verification (2SV), which can help to prevent account takeovers. Users across European countries received an in-app reminder about their account security, providing them access to published educational resources in our Safety and Support Centres.
Account takeovers are now the UK's most reported cybercrime. In response, we joined the UK Government, City of London Police, the National Cyber Security Centre, and the National Crime Agency to advance the “Stop! Think Fraud” campaign. This included the launch of a related educational @TikTokTips series.
Advancing Privacy Research and Community Engagement
We partnered with Dublin-based privacy tech company Oblivious in December to launch the first edition of PET ARENA, a hands-on Capture the Flag competition designed to advance innovation in Privacy Enhancing Technologies.
The competition, which will take place during the IEEE SaTML 2026 Competition Track, will provide a rigorous, interactive setting to test privacy protections and drive the development of more secure, trustworthy data systems. Open to students, researchers, engineers, and cybersecurity enthusiasts across the EEA, the UK, and Switzerland, participants will collaborate on red-team challenges in a simulated data environment, where they will relentlessly test privacy protections through a series of guided missions.
Looking Ahead
Privacy and security are ongoing responsibilities that we take seriously at TikTok. As the digital world changes, we continue to evolve how we protect our community and communicate clearly about our approach.
You can stay up to date on new TikTok privacy initiatives and app features by visiting our Global Privacy Centre. Next month, we'll cover how we're using AI and technology to enhance our community's privacy.