A Moscow engineering company fired its sales director for disclosing commercial secrets, including through the Chinese neural network DeepSeek. The dismissed employee tried to challenge the wording of her dismissal in court to receive 5 million rubles in compensation, but the court sided with the employer.
The employer found that the employee uploaded official documents from an internal protected resource to DeepSeek, forwarded them via corporate email, blind-copying her personal address, and disclosed commercial secrets during negotiations with a supplier, after which the counterparty stopped responding. The court recognized the dismissal as lawful, stating that the employee had no production need to upload protected information to external services.
Earlier, it was reported that DeepSeek user correspondence became accessible in Google search results due to an error in access rights settings. According to MTS Link, 78% of Russians use AI tools in their work and personal lives, but only 35% of those who use AI at work receive training for working with neural networks. The case of the top manager's dismissal demonstrates the real risks of using AI services in a corporate environment without observing security measures.