China reaffirms commitment to data privacy, rejects allegations of secret data collection After DeepSeek Restrictions

Beijing has firmly reiterated its stance on safeguarding Chinese companies' legal rights and interests, following concerns about data privacy in the wake of restrictions placed on the DeepSeek chatbot in several countries.

During a briefing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, Zhao Lijian, emphasized that the Chinese government has never required companies to gather or store private data about their customers secretly, Caliber.Az reports, citing foreign media.

"The Chinese government attaches great importance to data privacy and security," he stated. "We have never demanded, nor will we demand, that any company or individual unlawfully collect or store data."

Zhao also voiced China's opposition to the broadening of national security concepts and the politicization of trade, economic, and technological issues. "China has always opposed the practice of politicizing economic and technological matters, as well as the blurring of national security concepts," he added.

To recap, several governments, including India, the United States, Australia, and South Korea, have begun clamping down on the Chinese AI chatbot, DeepSeek, citing serious concerns about its security and data practices—particularly about government devices.

In Australia, the government has voiced strong apprehensions about exposing its systems to such applications.

"We don't want to expose government systems to these applications," said Andrew Charlton, Australia’s cybersecurity envoy, underscoring the risks posed by the chatbot's data-handling mechanisms.

India has gone a step further, issuing a blanket ban on the use of all AI tools and applications, including DeepSeek and OpenAI’s ChatGPT, on government computers and devices. This move highlights the growing unease among nations regarding the potential security vulnerabilities tied to foreign AI applications.

By Aghakazim Guliyev