On Monday, October 19, the Department of Homeland Security in the United States issued a notice requesting civilian agencies within the federal government to remove DeepSeek products from their IT systems and to prohibit the use of third-party services utilizing Chinese artificial intelligence models.
According to the announcement posted on the Federal Register website on Monday by the Department of Homeland Security, the relevant agencies are required to eliminate all DeepSeek products from their systems.
Furthermore, the Department of Homeland Security also prohibits these agencies from procuring DeepSeek products and using third-party services developed by DeepSeek.
The Department of Homeland Security stated that DeepSeek’s model poses “various threats” and expressed concerns that if U.S. government employees or contractors use the product, it “may lead to sensitive data being transmitted to China.”
The order cites the U.S. Cybersecurity Law, which prohibits this Chinese company from participating in federal government contracts.
Since the beginning of last year when DeepSeek’s breakthrough R1 model shook the global market, U.S. policymakers have been closely monitoring the potential threats posed by the company to national security. A report by the U.S. House of Representatives Special Committee on the Chinese Communist Party in April 2025, titled “DeepSeek Unmasked,” highlighted the “very close” relationship between DeepSeek and Beijing.
Previously, several U.S. agencies including the Department of Commerce and the Navy have already banned the use of DeepSeek on government devices. Multiple states such as New York, Tennessee, and Virginia have also taken similar measures.
The Department of Homeland Security outlined three reasons for the ban on using DeepSeek.
Firstly, DeepSeek is located in China with its servers based within the country. The Chinese legal system grants extensive powers to government networks and intelligence agencies to access private enterprise infrastructure.
Citing sources including DeepSeek’s privacy policy, a 2020 business consulting by the Department of Homeland Security on using Chinese enterprise data services and equipment, and relevant analysis from the Stanford Cyber Policy Center.
An appendix attached to the Federal Register mentions that when using DeepSeek’s hosting services, the account creation process collects personal identification information and may track users to create digital fingerprints. Keywords submitted by users and other information could also be sent as sensitive data to China.
The Department of Homeland Security believes that when combined with publicly available information, this data could potentially form actionable intelligence against U.S. personnel or government plans.
Furthermore, the Department of Homeland Security stated that the model itself may contain malicious software or other security vulnerabilities, citing a study published by NowSecure in February 2025, which pointed out significant security and privacy flaws in the DeepSeek iOS App.