Australia Bans Chinese AI Program DeepSeek From Government Devices

In this photo illustration, the Deepseek logo is seen through a magnifying loupe while displayed on a mobile phone screen in London, England, on Jan. 29, 2025. Leon Neal/Getty Images

The Australian government is banning Chinese AI chatbot DeepSeek from all of its systems and devices on the grounds of national security concerns.

Australia’s Secretary of Home Affairs issued a mandatory direction under the Protective Security Policy Framework based on “risk and threat information” from national security and intelligence agencies.

The federal Labor government noted that DeepSeek poses an “ unacceptable risk to Australian government technology” in a statement provided to the Epoch Times.

Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said the Albanese government was taking “swift and decisive action” to protect Australia’s national security interests.

“AI is a technology full of potential and opportunity—but the government will not hesitate to act when our agencies identify a national security risk,” he said.

“Our approach is country-agnostic and focused on the risk to the Australian government and our assets.”

The government noted the action was in line with that of multiple other countries and consistent with its approach to other high-risk cases including TikTok.

Effective immediately, all non-corporate Commonwealth entities must do the following.

“Identify and remove all existing instances of DeepSeek products, applications and services on all Australian Government systems and mobile devices. Prevent the access, use or installation of DeepSeek products, applications and services on all Australian Government systems and mobile devices. Report completion of above requirements to the Department of Home Affairs,” the mandatory direction states.

While it only applies to government systems and devices, the government urged all Australians to ensure they were well-informed about how their data could be used online.

Additionally, the government is warning Australians to look into the steps they can take to understand their online presence and protect their privacy.

The government encouraged all users to carefully review each company’s privacy policies which outline how customer data is managed.

Ministers Warned Against DeepSeek

This comes after Australian cabinet ministers and the Opposition warned about the privacy risks of using DeepSeek.

The chatbot, launched on Jan. 20, is controlled by Hangzhou DeepSeek Artificial Intelligence and Beijing DeepSeek Artificial Intelligence in China.

In late January, senior Minister Clare O'Neil urged Australians at home to guard their personal information and be careful about what else they share.

“You know, we would just urge Australians to exercise real caution about the personal information that they’re giving away. It’s fine to talk to the app, but perhaps don’t give it personal information that you don’t want the rest of the world to know about you,” she told Sunrise.

Shadow Finance Minister Jane Hume on Jan. 29 added, “We would urge caution on this one. Take our advice from the security experts and we hope that the Government will make that advice explicit, because we want to make sure that we keep Australians safe.”

Multiple countries have taken action to ban DeepSeek in government agencies, including Italy, Taiwan and the U.S. state of Texas.

DeepSeek Data Policy

DeepSeek’s privacy policy notes that it can collect information, including access tokens, when logging into a third party service.

The Chinese chat bot’s own privacy policy also states the app collects date of birth, email addresses, telephone numbers, and can collect the information you provide to the AI chat, including audio and text.

“When you use our services, we may collect your text or audio input, prompt, uploaded files, feedback, chat history, or other content that you provide to our model and services,” the privacy policy reveals.

Other information, including keystroke patterns, IP addresses, device IDs, and user IDs, is also collected.

“We automatically collect certain information from you when you use the services, including internet or other network activity information such as your IP address, unique device identifiers, and cookies,” the privacy statement states.

The personal information collected is stored within China.

During a recent speech to House Republicans, U.S. President Donald Trump labelled the release of DeepSeek AI as a “wakeup call” for all American industries.

The U.S. House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party has also raised concerns about a possible bias towards Chinese Communist Party narratives.

A sample chat on the app shared by the committee states, “As an artificial intelligence assistant developed by China’s DeepSeek company, my programming and knowledge base are designed to follow China’s laws and regulations, as well as socialist core values.”

Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) has introduced legislation to ban the import or export to China of AI technology, to protect American artificial intelligence.