Companies and government agencies around the world are restricting their employees' access to the tools of the Chinese company DeepSeek. This is reported by cybersecurity companies, Bloomberg writes.
For example, Armis Inc. said that "hundreds" of companies, including those affiliated with governments, were working to block access to DeepSeek due to concerns about possible data leaks to the Chinese government and weak privacy protections. Approximately 70% of Armis' customers have requested the blocking.
"The biggest concern is the AI model’s potential data leakage to the Chinese government", said Nadir Israel, the company's technical director. – Ви не знаєте, куди йде ваша інформація".
Another example is Netskope Inc. which specializes in network security and is used to restrict employee access to websites. Most of its customers are also working to restrict connections to DeepSeek, with 52% of them blocking access to the site entirely.
The main reason for the concerns is related to DeepSeek's privacy terms. They state that the company collects and stores data on servers in China. At the same time, any disputes regarding this are governed by local law.
Cyber researchers who decided to check the security of DeepSeek found a publicly accessible database of the company that contained internal information. According to Wiz Inc. startup, DeepSeek secured the information after the company pointed out the problem.
Meanwhile, governments have already begun to review DeepSeek's privacy protections. The Italian privacy regulator has ordered DeepSeek to be blocked "urgently and with immediate effect" to protect Italian data.
The Irish Data Protection Commission, which implements EU privacy regulations for many of the world's largest tech companies, has requested information from DeepSeek to determine whether the company is providing adequate protection for user data.
The UK Information Commissioner's Office noted that developers of generative AI should be transparent about the use of personal data. They added that they will take measures if their regulatory requirements are ignored.
Earlier it was reported that the US Navy banned the use of AI from the Chinese company DeepSeek. It was also recently reported that the US Congress banned employees from using DeepSeek.