Australia bans DeepSeek on government devices over security risks
Australia's government removed DeepSeek from all official devices following a security risk assessment by the Department of Home Affairs. The Chinese AI company's data handling practices raised concerns among multiple international regulators.
What happened
Australia's Minister for Home Affairs Stephanie Foster announced that DeepSeek products, applications and internet services would be removed from all fixed and mobile government devices on Wednesday due to unacceptable security risks.
The minister stated in a directive that 'after an analysis of risks and threats, I have considered that the use of DeepSeek products, applications and internet services represented an unacceptable level of risk in terms of security for the Australian government.'
Reported impact
Australia's ban followed similar action by Taiwan, which announced the previous week that its public officials and key infrastructure could not use DeepSeek applications, citing risks to 'national information security.'
Index analysis
DeepSeek released its R1 conversational AI system in January, which reportedly matched American competitors despite lower costs, but quickly raised security concerns. Regulators in South Korea, Italy, France and Ireland requested information from DeepSeek about how the company handled user data.
Classification
Sources and evidence
This record was researched and written by the Index, based on the following original reporting.