Sault Ste. Marie city council voted Monday to prepare a plan to ban the DeepSeek chatbot app from all city devices and networks.
Ward 4 Couns. Stephan Kinach and Marchy Bruni suggested the popular software be banned, expressing concern that the Chinese-owned app may allow unauthorized access to private information including names, emails, telephone numbers and dates of birth, along with text or audio inputs, prompts, uploaded files, feedback, and chat histories.
Released in late January, the large language model app soared almost immediately to the top of Apple's App Store chart for free apps.
Shared Services Canada is recommending that governments consider blocking the application and website on their departmental network and devices.
Ward 5 Coun. Matthew Scott acknowledged that there are concerns about the DeepSeek website sending sensitive personal information to China but asked city staff to consider whether a localized app posted similar risks.
Two years ago, Sault councillors passed a similar resolution concerning another Chinese-owned app, TikTok.
Mayor Matthew Shoemaker said city council might be getting similar requests in the future and suggested the city develop a process so security risks don't have to be brought to council.
"We are not the experts on what apps to ban," the mayor said.
"Our IT department can perhaps monitor and report back to us regularly on what should be or shouldn't be banned."