According to Microsoft vice chairman and president Brad Smith, employees are prohibited from using DeepSeek due to concerns about data security and the potential for propaganda. He shared this information during a Senate hearing today.
“At Microsoft, we do not allow our employees to access the DeepSeek app,” explained Smith, noting that DeepSeek’s application is available on both desktop and mobile platforms.
Smith added that Microsoft has also chosen not to list DeepSeek in its app store because of these concerns.
While many organizations and countries have placed restrictions on DeepSeek, this marks the first instance of Microsoft publicly addressing such a ban.
Smith mentioned that the restriction is primarily due to worries about data potentially being stored in China, as well as the risk that DeepSeek’s responses could be swayed by “Chinese propaganda.”
DeepSeek’s privacy policy indicates that it stores user data on servers located in China, which are subject to local laws dictating mandatory cooperation with the country’s intelligence agencies. Furthermore, DeepSeek significantly censors topics deemed sensitive by the Chinese government.
Despite Smith’s critical stance on DeepSeek, Microsoft introduced DeepSeek’s R1 model through its Azure cloud service shortly after the app gained widespread attention earlier this year.
However, this is distinct from offering DeepSeek’s chatbot app itself. Since DeepSeek is open source, anyone can download the model, host it on their own servers, and provide it to their users without routing data back to China.
That said, it doesn’t eliminate other potential risks, such as the possibility of spreading propaganda or creating insecure code.
During the Senate hearing, Smith stated that Microsoft had been able to examine DeepSeek’s AI model and “modify” it to eliminate “harmful side effects.” However, the company did not clarify what specific adjustments were made, directing inquiries back to Smith’s statements.
In its initial launch of DeepSeek on Azure, Microsoft noted that DeepSeek went through “thorough red teaming and safety evaluations” prior to its release on Azure.
It’s worth mentioning that DeepSeek’s app competes directly with Microsoft’s own Copilot internet search chat app, yet Microsoft does not impose bans on all competing chat apps from its Windows app store.
For example, Perplexity is available on the Windows app store. Interestingly, apps from Microsoft’s primary competitor, Google (including the Chrome browser and Google’s chatbot Gemini), were not found in our search of the webstore.
