‘Almost certain’: Call to ban DeepSeek on government devices over China fears

Australian government agencies and critical infrastructure providers are being urged to ban DeepSeek, the Chinese generative AI app that rocketed up app store charts and unsettled global sharemarkets this week.

Australia’s largest cybersecurity provider CyberCX issued a threat advisory on Friday, declaring that it is “almost certain” that DeepSeek and the user data it collects are subject to direction and control by the Chinese government and that the app should be banned on government devices.

“We assess with high confidence that the DeepSeek AI Assistant app produces biased outputs that align with Chinese Communist Party (CCP) strategic objectives and narratives and collects user personal information from their device and collects prompt information entered by users and stores this information in China,” the threat advisory reads.

Australia’s largest cybersecurity provider CyberCX says it is “almost certain” that DeepSeek user data can be accessed by the Chinese government.Credit: Getty Images

“We recommend that all organisations, especially critical infrastructure organisations, democratic institutions and organisations storing or processing commercially sensitive or personal information, should strongly consider restricting access to DeepSeek applications on enterprise devices and consider advising staff members about the privacy and other risks of downloading and using DeepSeek AI Assistant.”

DeepSeek has been contacted for comment.

China’s National Intelligence Law requires all private sector organisations and citizens to “support, assist and co-operate” with intelligence agencies, and DeepSeek’s terms and conditions explicitly state that its products and services are governed by the laws of mainland China.

The app remains the most downloaded globally on the iOS App Store and Google Play, surpassing ChatGPT.

Katherine Mansted, CyberCX’s executive director, said she now expects Australian governments, government departments and agencies to ban DeepSeek, as TikTok and equipment from Chinese firm Huawei have been previously.

The Australian government banned TikTok from government devices in 2023.

Mansted said it was unusual for her firm to recommend its clients restrict access to a particular app or piece of software.

CyberCX’s Katherine Mansted believes restrictions on DeepSeek are likely.

“We don’t do it lightly,” she told this masthead. “But this is an app that is really explicit about its links back to China and the Chinese government.”

Five Eyes governments, including Australia, are yet to issue formal guidance about DeepSeek.

Australia’s Treasurer Jim Chalmers this week urged Australians to “be cautious” about the app, while Minister for Industry and Science Ed Husic suggested Australians “have to be careful”, noting questions about its approach to privacy and data management.

Husic was the first member of a Western government to raise privacy concerns about DeepSeek.

While noting that the British government hasn’t “had time to fully understand” the app, the UK’s technology secretary said, “This is a Chinese model that … has censorship built into it.”

Australia’s Treasurer Jim Chalmers this week urged Australians to “be cautious” about the app.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

In the US, the White House press secretary said that the National Security Council will assess the security implications of DeepSeek, and the US Navy has directed personnel not to use the app on security grounds.

Mansted said Australia needed a high-risk foreign vendor framework for critical infrastructure, democratic institutions and government.

“It’s just a shame that these decisions and frameworks aren’t baked in so that we don’t need to be playing catch-up every time there is a new breakthrough,” she said.

“The government should be leading on this, and what we have said consistently is government needs a holistic framework for high-risk foreign vendor technology, and that needs to be public. It just can’t be playing ‘Whack-a-Mole’ based on every new service or every new product.”

Get news and reviews on technology, gadgets and gaming in our Technology newsletter every Friday. Sign up here.