Regulators worldwide are becoming enraged with the Chinese AI startup DeepSeek. A rising number of nations and governmental organizations have banned DeepSeek’s chatbot apps and viral AI models due to worries about the company’s security, privacy, and ethics policies.
Hundreds of corporations have also banned DeepSeek. According to reports, the main concern is possible data leaking to the Chinese government. DeepSeek’s privacy policy states that all user data is stored in China, where local regulations require businesses to provide information to intelligence officials upon request.
We’ll keep this roundup updated as the list of areas where DeepSeek’s apps are no longer accessible expands. Included as well are the government agencies that have banned DeepSeek technology.
Italy
After the nation’s privacy watchdog looked into how DeepSeek handled personal data, Italy was among the first nations to outlaw the company.
DeepSeek’s data collection techniques and compliance with the GDPR, the EU statute that regulates the retention and processing of personal data in EU territory, were the subject of an inquiry by Italy’s Data Protection Authority (DPA) in late January. DeepSeek was given 20 days by the DPA to answer inquiries on the company’s user data storage practices, location, and purposes.
DeepSeek asserted that EU law did not apply to its applications. Disagreeing, Italy’s DPA took action to take DeepSeek’s apps down from the Italian Google and Apple app stores.
Taiwan
DeepSeek “endangers national information security,” according to Taiwan’s Ministry of Digital Affairs, which has prohibited government organizations from utilizing the company’s artificial intelligence.
The Taiwan ministry said in a statement that utilizing DeepSeek’s technology puts vital infrastructure facilities and public sector employees at risk of “cross-border transmission and information leakage.” Employees of government organizations, public schools, and state-owned businesses are all prohibited by the Taiwanese government.
According to the Ministry of Digital Affairs, “DeepSeek AI service is a Chinese product.” “Its operation raises [a number of] information security issues.”
U.S. Congress
There have apparently been warnings against using DeepSeek technology in U.S. legislative offices.
According to Axios, the House’s chief administrative officer (CAO), which offers business solutions and support services to the House of Representatives, notified congressional offices that DeepSeek’s technology is “under review.”
The alert stated, “[T]hreat actors are already using DeepSeek to infect devices and distribute malicious software.” “The House has implemented security measures to limit DeepSeek’s functionality on all House-issued devices in order to mitigate these risks.”
Axios claims that the CAO has forbidden employees from setting up DeepSeek apps on any official tablets, PCs, or smartphones.
Texas
Greg Abbott, the governor of Texas, issued an order prohibiting DeepSeek and other Chinese businesses’ software from being used on state-provided devices.
Texas “will not allow the Chinese Communist Party to infiltrate our state’s critical infrastructure through data-harvesting AI and social media apps,” Abbott stated in a statement. Texas will keep up its defense of our state against adversarial foreign entities.
U.S. Navy
According to CNBC, the U.S. Navy has told its members not to utilize DeepSeek technology or apps.
The Navy banned service members from using DeepSeek goods “in any capacity” in an email sent in late January, citing “potential security and ethical concerns associated with the [tech’s] origin[s] and usage.” According to a Navy spokesperson who talked to CNBC, the email was based on a cyber workforce manager’s advise and related to the Department of the Navy’s chief information officer’s generative AI policy.
The Navy stated in the email that it is “essential” that members “avoid downloading, installing, or utilizing [DeepSeek AI]” and desist from using DeepSeek’s AI “for any work-related tasks or personal use.”
Pentagon
The Pentagon has blocked access to DeepSeek technologies, but not before some staff accessed them, Bloomberg reported.
The Defense Information Systems Agency, which is responsible for the Pentagon’s IT networks, moved to ban DeepSeek’s website in January, according to Bloomberg. The decision is said to have come after defense officials raised concerns that Pentagon workers were using DeepSeek’s applications without authorization.
Bloomberg notes that while the prohibition remains in place, Defense Department personnel can use DeepSeek’s AI through Ask Sage, an authorized platform that doesn’t directly connect to Chinese servers.
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NASA
NASA has also banned employees from using DeepSeek tech. That’s according to CNBC, which obtained a memo from the agency’s chief AI officer informing personnel that DeepSeek’s servers operate outside the U.S., raising national security concerns.
“DeepSeek and its products and services are not authorized for use with NASA’s data and information or on government-issued devices and networks,” the memo said, per CNBC. “[Employees are not authorized to] access DeepSeek via NASA devices and agency-managed network connections.”
NASA has blocked use of DeepSeek apps on “agency-managed devices and networks,” CNBC reports.
SOURCE: TECH CRUNCH
