Microsoft employees banned from using DeepSeek app

Microsoft Vice Chairman and President Brad Smith said in a Senate hearing that its employees aren’t allowed to use DeepSeek due to data security and propaganda concerns.  Smith said Microsoft hasn’t put DeepSeek in its app store either over those concerns. Although lots of organizations and even countries have imposed restrictions on DeepSeek, this is the first time Microsoft has gone public about such a ban.

“At Microsoft we don’t allow our employees to use the DeepSeek app,” Smith said, referring to DeepSeek’s application service (which is available on both desktop and mobile).

According to Smith, the restriction stems from the risk that data will be stored in China and that DeepSeek’s answers could be influenced by “Chinese propaganda.”

DeepSeek’s privacy policy states it stores user data on Chinese servers. Such data is subject to Chinese law, which mandates cooperation with the country’s intelligence agencies. DeepSeek also heavily censors topics considered sensitive by the Chinese government.

Despite Smith’s critical comments about DeepSeek, Microsoft offered up DeepSeek’s R1 model on its Azure cloud service shortly after it went viral earlier this year.

During the same Senate hearing, Smith said that Microsoft had managed to go inside DeepSeek’s AI model and “change” it to remove “harmful side effects.”