DeepSeek's privacy policy shows broad data collection and says content that users give to its models, like text, audio, and files, is stored on servers in China

Amid ongoing fears over TikTok, Chinese generative AI platform DeepSeek says it's sending heaps of US user data straight to its home country …

Wired 2025-01-28

Context & Ripple Effects

DeepSeek’s handling of user inputs is part of a broader question about where control over a model extends: its R1 model already reflected Chinese restrictions on sensitive prompts, tying model behavior and data governance to the same operating environment.

The disclosure gained lasting significance as DeepSeek expanded beyond its home market: German regulators later challenged the app’s transfers of user data to China, while Chinese AI models were gaining wider international use.

First-order effects

Users who submit prompts, audio, or files to DeepSeek must treat those materials as data stored in China, raising the sensitivity of using the service for personal or work-related content.
DeepSeek’s cross-border data practices become a direct point of scrutiny for users, enterprise buyers, and regulators evaluating whether the service can be deployed in their jurisdictions.

Second-order effects

App stores and business customers may face pressure to assess or limit DeepSeek distribution where its storage practices conflict with local data-transfer expectations, as foreshadowed by Germany’s request for app-store action.
Rival AI providers can make data location and handling a more prominent product differentiator, particularly for customers deciding whether to use Chinese models as they expand globally.

Third-order effects

If data-residency disputes recur, AI competition may increasingly split between model capability and jurisdictional acceptability: a model can be broadly accessible yet constrained in markets that object to where inputs are stored.
The pattern supports a two-track international AI market, in which adoption of Chinese models grows but access is mediated by national privacy, security, and platform-governance rules.

The trend: Cross-border AI adoption is making data residency and state jurisdiction as consequential to model distribution as model performance.

Discussion

@couts Andrew Couts on bluesky
NEW: DeepSeek just straight-up says it's sending the data it collects on you to China, which will likely heat up debates around the future of the platform. @mattburgess1.bsky.social and @lhn.bsky.social report: www.wired.com/story/deepse...
@andrewstroehlein@mastodon.social Andrew Stroehlein on mastodon
Brand new tech... ...same old repressive one-party state — https://www.theguardian.com/ ...
@scobleizer Robert Scoble on x
Your data is being collected unless you run locally. On your own machines.
@confusedvichar Anurag Minus Verma on x
The underrated genius of of DeepSeek is how it has trained (or AI-trained) US startup founders to perfect the surprised face about data privacy, even though their main income so far has come from selling data.
@ercwl @ercwl on x
1/ Holy shit. I just found out that DeepSeek actually started out as a Bittensor subnet This changes everything I've said about Bittensor According to this article, Bittensor's incentivization mechanism helped DeepSeek bootstrap the groundwork for the DeepSeek-V3 neural net 👇 [im…
@nathan_covey Nathan Covey on x
Just FYI [image]
@vxunderground @vxunderground on x
🚨BREAKING🚨 According to a mysterious document published by DeepSeek titled “Terms and Conditions”, DeepSeek does the following when you visit their website - Record your IP address - Record your user-agent - Record your input into DeepSeek - Stores it in their servers
@bgurley Bill Gurley on x
@unusual_whales It's been forked by many US companies. No need to run their version. Open source FTW.
@lukedepulford Luke de Pulford on x
Just fyi, @deepseek_ai collects your IP, keystroke patterns, device info, etc etc, and stores it in China, where all that data is vulnerable to arbitrary requisition from the 🇨🇳 State. From their own privacy policy: [image]
@lukedepulford Luke de Pulford on x
When IPAC was attacked by MSS sponsored group APT31, the attackers were seeking to do pixel reconnaissance to obtain a fraction of the info you'd just be handing over to this app.
@lukedepulford Luke de Pulford on x
Anticipating tedious whataboutery: the difference between this and free-world social media apps is that you can enforce your data rights in rule of law countries. This is not the case in China.
@tomtugendhat Tom Tugendhat on x
Every word Every question Every inquiry All taken. All stored. All kept.
@etbrooking Emerson T. Brooking on x
the tiktok playbook is not as compelling when you can just run the model somewhere else.
@billackman Bill Ackman on x
@deepseek_ai is a Trojan Horse. TikTok is just a toy by comparison.
r/nottheonion r on reddit
We tried out DeepSeek. It worked well, until we asked it about Tiananmen Square and Taiwan
r/LibDem r on reddit
We tried out DeepSeek. It worked well, until we asked it about Tiananmen Square and Taiwan
r/technology r on reddit
We tried out DeepSeek. It worked well, until we asked it about Tiananmen Square and Taiwan
r/technews r on reddit
DeepSeek's Popular AI App Is Explicitly Sending US Data to China
r/cybersecurity r on reddit
DeepSeek is explicitly storing all user data in China
r/worldnews r on reddit
DeepSeek is explicitly sending US data to China
@sybilhyz Peiyi Wang on x
I hope this formula helps researchers with no experience in RL better understand the RL of LLMs. Additionally, I am grateful to have @pigjunebaba by my side to witness the miracle of RL.
@sybilhyz Peiyi Wang on x
Last year, I joined DeepSeek with no RL experience. While conducting Mathshepherd and DeepSeekMath research, I independently derived this unified formula to understand various training methods. It felt like an “aha moment”, though I later realized it was PG.
@sybilhyz Peiyi Wang on x
This unified formula has made me truly believe in the potential of RL. During the training of r1-zero, it was because of this formula that I was able to wait for and eventually witness r1-zero's aha moment.

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