Chinese government bodies and state-owned companies have told employees to stay away from OpenClaw after officials raised concerns it could put sensitive data at risk.

Two people familiar with the matter said the warnings went out in recent days, telling staff not to install the software on work devices. One source said employees at state-owned enterprises were told by regulators to avoid it altogether, in some cases even on personal phones and computers.

The second source, from a Chinese government agency, told Reuters no outright ban had been issued at their workplace, but staff were warned about safety risks and told not to install it.

The National Computer Network Emergency Response Technical Team/Coordination Center of China (CNCERT/CC) also issued a security advisory noting that improper installation and use of OpenClaw agents have already led to several serious security concerns.

Among the key threats highlighted is “prompt injection,” where attackers embed hidden malicious instructions in web pages that, if read by OpenClaw, could trick the system into leaking sensitive information such as system keys. CNCERT/CC also warned of “misoperation” risks, where OpenClaw may misunderstand user commands and mistakenly delete critical data, including emails or core production information.

The software was built by Peter Steinberger, an Austrian developer, who put it on GitHub last November. He was hired by OpenAI last month. In China, it caught on quickly. The phrase “raising a lobster,” a reference to the app’s lobster logo, spread across Chinese social media, and the tool was soon taken up by major tech companies and some local governments.

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