The Government of India is soon going to release an advisory warning the users against possible privacy and cyber security issues of the Chinese AI tool DeepSeek. The decision comes in the wake of an investigation carried out by India’s cybersecurity agency CERT-In into DeepSeek and raised alarms regarding the collection of sensitive user data by the tool using its AI chatbot feature.
According to the Economic Times, senior government officials have pointed out that CERT-In has found that DeepSeek harvests personal information ranging from user prompts to device information and app interaction to even keystrokes, raising concerns in the Indian government and swift action on this issue to protect personal privacy and national security.
One of the most worrying features is the depth with which DeepSeek collects user behavior, something far more extreme than what the data collection methods of traditional media offer. The AI follows the prompts a user has submitted to the chatbot, logs the performance of devices, and records the apps one uses. In addition, it tracks if a person has stopped using competitors like ChatGPT or Google’s Gemini.
Accountability and Storage Concerns
The main and most pressing matter for India focuses on the amount of transparency for DeepSeek pertaining to where exactly and how DeepSeek stores any sensitive user information. This sort of lack in accountability has fed into fears where personal data gets misused – either through a surveillance or, worse, via cyber espionage, which is ever more possible across the political as well as the security tensions from India and China.
This warning comes days after a clarification from India’s Ministry of Finance, which announced that it wouldn’t allow governmental officers to apply AI tools that include DeepSeek and ChatGPT on accounts of privacy risks and security threats. Not singular, though many other countries around the world also banned DeepSeek on their employees’ devices- Australia, Italy, and South Korea being prime examples due to similar reasons.
DeepSeek Exposed to Increasing Global Scrutiny.
Since its release in January, DeepSeek has been under intense scrutiny from governments around the world. The tool initially received praise for its efficient open-source AI model, but its data practices have since raised red flags. Australia banned DeepSeek due to privacy and malware concerns, and Taiwan labeled it a security threat. South Korean ministries, including police agencies, flagged the app as a national security risk after the Chinese AI startup failed to provide clarity on how it handles user data.
Like that, Italy stopped DeepSeek from processing information on Italian users and opened an investigation into the R1 model of the tool. Cyber security experts have long expressed their views that free service applications like DeepSeek exploit their users by siphoning enormous personal data from them. While the Western companies operating in these tech sectors enjoy legal immunity in China, it is not so for DeepSeek.
India’s Next Steps: Reviewing Advisory and Hosting Plans
The Indian IT Ministry has already finalized the technical and operational guidelines for hosting DeepSeek within India. However, the recent findings from CERT-In have raised questions about whether these plans will proceed as originally intended. Officials expect the advisory to be issued soon, urging citizens and organizations to avoid using DeepSeek on their devices.
It seems that India, like other parts of the world, is stepping up vigilance over privacy and cybersecurity risks at a time when the world has become increasingly interconnected. The government of India, therefore, will not allow its citizens to fall prey to sensitive data misuse at the hands of foreign entities due to emerging national security and privacy threats.
