Canada today blocked Chinese social media app TikTok from official government devices, saying the app posed an “unacceptable” level of risk to privacy and security.

Canada has also moved to prevent federal government workers from downloading the app in the future, the country’s Treasury Secretariat said in a statement. The methods of data collection from the TikTok provide significant access to the contents of the phone, the announcement underlines.

TikTok said it was disappointed by Canada’s decision. It was issued “without citing any specific security concerns about TikTok and without us being contacted to discuss any concerns before this decision was made,” a company spokesperson said in an emailed statement.

The move, which comes days after the European Commission imposed a similar ban, highlights the growing lobbying against TikTok over concerns about its proximity to the Chinese government and its possession of user data around the world.

Federal and provincial privacy regulators Canada are also jointly investigating the app, owned by Chinese company ByteDance Ltd, over concerns about the platform’s collection, use and disclosure of personal information.

“For the general public, the decision to use a social media app or platform is a personal choice,” the finance ministry said in a statement. “However, the Communications Security Foundation’s Canadian Cyber ​​Security Center guidelines strongly recommend that Canadians understand the risks and make an informed choice for themselves before deciding which tools to use.”

Canada’s move is another potential thorn in Sino-Canadian relations, which have been strained in recent years for a variety of reasons, most recently over Ottawa’s accusations that China tried to influence its election and engaged in air and maritime surveillance activities .

Beijing denies the allegations and urged Ottawa to stop what it described as unwarranted speculation and slander.