BRUSSELS, March 9 (CNA) - TikTok launched a new effort to assuage European leaders' worries over data security on Wednesday (Mar 8), as Western governments consider further bans on the video-sharing app.

Their initiative came as the Czech cyber watchdog issued its own warning, describing the Chinese-owned video-sharing app as a security threat.

Western powers, including the European Union and the United States, have taken a tough approach to the app, which is owned by Chinese company ByteDance.

They are worried that Beijing could access sensitive user data from around the world.

TikTok executives said the company was working with a third-party European security company to oversee and check how it handles European users' data, which will be stored at two centres in Dublin and one in Norway from 2023 onwards.

European users' data are currently stored in the United States and Singapore.

TikTok insisted this project would also reduce its own employees' access to user data.

The company has refused to name the partner, but the three centres will cost 1.2 billion euros (US$1.3 billion) annually and the project began six months ago, Theo Bertram, TikTok's vice president of European public policy said in an online briefing.

TikTok already has a similar deal in the United States with Silicon Valley giant Oracle to keep US users' data in the country.

"In the same way we have done ... in the US, we'll build a secure environment around that data to prevent access from outside of the region," Bertram said.