The court’s observation came while it was hearing a petition seeking a direction to the Centre to block access to DeepSeek, a Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot, that is providing its services free of cost in India.
“AI is a dangerous tool in anybody’s hand, whether it is Chinese or American, it does not make any difference. It is not that the government is unaware of these things. They are very well aware…,” a bench of Chief Justice D.K. Upadhyaya and Justice Tushar Rao Gedela said.
The Centre’s counsel said that the issue requires consideration and urged the court to grant some time to get instructions in the matter. The court listed the matter for February 20.
The petitioner advocate Bhavna Sharma, along with advocate Nihit Dalmia, raised concern over the alleged “inappropriate and unlawful operations” of DeepSeek, saying it posed “instant and emergent threats that are prejudicial to the sovereignty and integrity of India, the data security of the State, and public order”.
The petitioners stated that DeepSeek is available for download from play stores on mobile and DeepSeek’s terms of use and privacy policy, “fails to protect the Right to Privacy of Indian citizens” and compliance with the key provisions of the IT (Reasonable Security Practices and Procedures and Sensitive Personal Data or Information) Rules, 2011, and Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 particularly regarding data collection, disclosure, and security.
“Globally, multiple countries have raised similar concerns about DeepSeek’s privacy and security practices, and consequently, Italy’s Data Protection Authority ‘Garante’ has banned DeepSeek on the grounds of its violation of privacy law,” the plea said.
It further said Australian government banned DeepSeek from all government devices over concerns that it poses security risks. On similar grounds, Data Regulators in Ireland, Belgium, Greece, South Korea, Taiwan, the USA, and France are investigating DeepSeek’s operations.
“Further, the Ministry of Finance, Government of India, has internally issued an order for its departments directing them not to use Al tools such as DeepSeek and ChatGPT in-office computers and devices as they pose risks to the confidentiality of Government data and documents,” the plea added.
The plea sought direction to the government to block access to DeepSeek in all forms – Apps, Chat, and Platform for public access in India, block access for all Indian government entities to prevent the use or installation of DeepSeek, and remove existing instances of DeepSeek products from all Indian government systems and devices.
Published – February 13, 2025 10:17 am IST
