They should store the data in US servers like OpenAI does. Apparently then Mashable won't write an article about it.
The criticism thrown at DeepSeek in the past days is just as applicable to American AI models. But when that was brought up it in the past it was "making things political".
This article is what US propaganda looks like folks. Mashable should be ashamed.
Literally all AI companies do this to run their services. Except you can actually download Deepseek and run it completely securely on your own devices.
You know who doesn't allow that security? OpenAI and the other US companies currently being screwed.
the company states that it may share user information to "comply with applicable law, legal process, or government requests.
Literally every company's privacy policy here in the US basically just says that too.
Not only does DeepSeek collect "text or audio input, prompt, uploaded files, feedback, chat history, or other content that [the user] provide[s] to our model and Services," but it also collects information from your device, including "device model, operating system, keystroke patterns or rhythms, IP address, and system language."
Breaking news, company with chatbot you send messages to uses and stores the messages you send, and also does what practically every other app does for demographic statistics gathering and optimizations.
Companies with AI models like Google, Meta, and OpenAI collect similar troves of information, but their privacy policies do not mention collecting keystrokes. There's also the added issue that DeepSeek sends your user data straight to Chinese servers.
They didn't use the word keystrokes, therefore they don't collect them? Of course they collect keystrokes, how else would you type anything into these apps?
In DeepSeek's privacy policy, there's no mention of the security of its servers. There's nothing about whether data is encrypted, either stored or in transmission, and zero information about safeguards to prevent unauthorized access.
This is the only thing that seems disturbing to me, compared to what we'd like to expect based on the context of what DeepSeek is. Of course, this was proven recently in practice to be terrible policy, so I assume they might shore up their defenses a bit.
All the articles that talk about this as if it's some big revelation just boil down to "company does exactly what every other big tech company does in America, except in China"
Unrelated but yesterday I saw a post where the person was mocking those concerned by the chinese getting their data, saying things like "why would they care" and some people sarcastically saying they wouldn't understand the data because "it was in another language". Were those people right or not?
"We store the information we collect in secure servers located in the People's Republic of China"
Now you Americans know how we Europeans feel when Google, Amazon and Facebook store our information on American servers. Hint: The protective wall between Chinese servers and their government are about as good as the one between American servers and their government - at least for non-US citizens. The last thin veil of privacy for Eurpeans has been ripped to shreds by Trump last week.
Yeah, uh... If you think that American companies aren't doing this same thing and handing your data over to the government without a warrant among other bad uses, I have some bad news for you. This is pretty much par for the course, and I'm pretty sure that we're witnessing a well financed negative media blitz happening to try and keep OpenAI from getting all of its spaghetti spilled. Watch for the government to try and ban deepseek for "national security" reasons soon.
I swear people do not understand how the internet works.
Anything you use on a remote server is going to be seen to some degree. They may or may not keep track of you, but you can't be surprised if they are. If you run the model locally, there is no indication it is sending anything anywhere. It runs using the same open source LLM tools that run all the other models you can run locally.
This is very much like someone doing surprised pikachu when they find out that facebook saves all the photos they upload to facebook or that gmail can read your email.
Any ChatAI logs your keystrokes and your inputs to work and update their LLM. The PP and TOS is the same and even better as those from the US competitors. DeepSeek is OpenSource
Anyway I prefer Andisearch and its PP, the best of all these big tech AIs.
This "China's AI is taking your data and that's bad" is shockingly similar to "TikTok is taking your data and that's bad". Lots of US counterparts do the same thing, but I don't see (as much) media coverage about that.
Don Draper: "no no no, everyone else's cigarettes are dangerous. Lucky Strikes are... toasted."
Not excusing Chinese companies but everyone does the same shit. I bet a lot of US companies that behave the same or worse will be looking for trade barriers to protect their business so their interests will be stoking fear of Chinese competitors. I don't really give a shit which country is doing it, I am not buying what they are selling.
US companies have a stranglehold on government, education and business and are getting access to my families data despite my personal objections. Far more concerned about that than a Chinese service I have no intention of using.
Deepseek can at least be self hosted if you want AI in your life. I can happily live without it.
no sh*t! now tell me, not that it's correct, but what does the chinese intelligence apparatus can do to me vs. what the u.s. intelligence apparatus (which has been collecting intelligence about me since i'm alive) can do to me?
This is probably only a problem with the online version. In contrast to google and openAI they, like meta, let you download the model and run it offline, where they can't access any of this data I presume.
Anyone using DeepSeek as a service the same way proprietary LLMs like ChatGPT are used is missing the point. The game-changer isn’t that a Chinese company like DeepSeek can compete with OpenAI and its ilk—it’s that, thanks to DeepSeek, any organization with a few million dollars to train and host their own model can now compete with OpenAI.
Same as Chrome's magic bar, or android keyboard no ? So in the end, does USA doing it good because "democracy" (never ever with napalm) when China is bad because human rights violation (USA never did anything like this) ?
detective conan sure had a hard time cracking the case!
"The personal information we collect from you may be stored on a server located outside of the country where you live. We store the information we collect in secure servers located in the People's Republic of China," the privacy policy reads.
Oh the horror! Let's look at what our glorious spawns-of-techbro heroism has for us in store:
OpenAI processes your Personal Data for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy on servers located in various jurisdictions, including processing and storing your Personal Data in our facilities and servers in the United States. While data protection law varies by country, we apply the protections described in this policy to your Personal Data regardless of where it is processed, and only transfer that data pursuant to legally valid transfer mechanisms.
When you access our website or Services, your personal data may be transferred to our servers in the US, or to other countries outside the European Economic Area (“EEA”) and the UK. This may be a direct provision of your personal data to us, or a transfer that we or a third party make.
So not only is your data "possibly" stored in one country, now there's a possibility of it being stored in many different countries. Where's the outcry for that?
Ok, so maybe your data being under the jurisdiction of another country is sus, right?
In another section about how DeepSeek shares user data, the company states that it may share user information to "comply with applicable law, legal process, or government requests."
OH MY GOD SOUND THE ALARM!
ChatGPT:
spoiler
We may use Personal Data for the following purposes: [...] To comply with legal obligations and to protect the rights, privacy, safety, or property of our users, OpenAI, or third parties.
Claude:
spoiler
Pursuant to regulatory or legal requirements, safety, rights of others, and to enforce our rights or our terms. We may disclose personal data to governmental regulatory authorities as required by law, including for legal, tax or accounting purposes, in response to their requests for such information or to assist in investigations. We may also disclose personal data to third parties in connection with claims, disputes or litigation, when otherwise permitted or required by law, or if we determine its disclosure is necessary to protect the health and safety of you or any other person, to protect against fraud or credit risk, to enforce our legal rights or the legal rights of others, to enforce contractual commitments that you have made, or as otherwise permitted or required by applicable law.
So not only can your data be subject to the authorities, but it's also handed out to 3rd parties (mind you, DeepSeek does the exact same, so why is it any surprise?).
Not only does DeepSeek collect "text or audio input, prompt, uploaded files, feedback, chat history, or other content that [the user] provide[s] to our model and Services," ...
🤦... You get the idea now, bother yourself with the privacy policies of the respective contemporaries and CTRL + F to "User Content" or "User Input".. Same fucking shit.
Companies with AI models like Google, Meta, and OpenAI collect similar troves of information, but their privacy policies do not mention collecting keystrokes.
Yes, collecting keystrokes is probably the oddest thing here. To compare data farming giants with a decade and a half's worth of data collection to a startup in terms of data collection is so astronomically dumb.
I could go on but I'm bored now. Do your own research.
No I’m not surprised at all. This is necessary for any kind of auto save and auto complete. Not happy about my shit being stored in China, but “collects every keystroke” isn’t really news anymore.
If you’re worried about this kind of behavior, don’t use any website with auto save or auto complete, period.
Ok, so they'll ban it under that guise to appease US companys, same as TikTok. I really didn't care about TikTok since it's all brain rot to me but this might actually be a tool I'll use if it's as efficient as they say.
Assuming that DeepSeek really is logging keystrokes (they provided no evidence: who were they quoting?), that is unfortunately not uncommon. As shown by their TikTok pearl clutching, corporate media regularly goes for maximalist cold war fearmongering.
DeepSeek's privacy policy raises concerns about a U.S. foreign adversary's ability to access U.S. user data. Users are familiar with the massive amounts of data U.S. tech companies collect, but China's cybersecurity laws make it much easier for the government to demand data from its tech companies. Additionally, DeepSeek users have reported instances of censorship, when it comes to criticizing the Chinese government or asking about Tiananmen Square.
Users have been shown that both governments are untrustworthy so what the fuck are we supposed to do?
Am I supposed to not read this article as panic? I know this is Mashable but the media overall is no longer unbiased and now there’s gonna be more gremlins to watch for in pro-US corpo AI propaganda and media ownership having stakes in AI.