A review into privacy concerns of social media apps such as TikTok by the federal government is unlikely to be released publicly, an inquiry has heard.

Officials from the Department of Home Affairs, along with security agencies ASIO and the Australian Signals Directorate, appeared before a parliamentary into foreign interference through social media on Wednesday.

Home Affairs official Peter Anstee told the committee the review by the department into concerns surrounding social media and their privacy practices had been handed to the government in March.

The review is still being considered by the government, but Mr Anstee hosed down suggestions it could be released for the public.

“Given the classification of the review, I think it’s unlikely that it will be made public,” he told the hearing.

The Commonwealth had already banned TikTok from government devices because of security concerns, following the lead of other Western nations.

Australian Signals Directorate acting director-general Abigail Bradshaw said TikTok was able to gather large amounts of information from users.

She said the information included data such as phone numbers, contacts, IP addresses and SIM card numbers.

“Together, obviously, in aggregated form that creates quite a unique fingerprint in terms of the device,” she said.

“That analysis of the risks associated with the type of data which can be generated … informed the architecture of the advisory [for the TikTok ban].”

Officials for TikTok, who appeared before the committee on Tuesday, said security for users was its priority.

Mr Anstee said while TikTok had been banned from government devices, data collection was common among social media platforms.

“There are a lot of applications that can collect a huge amount of data,” he said.

“I don’t think that risk is unique to any particular app.”

The committee will examine what work is being done by Australian agencies to counter foreign interference threats.

– AAP