DeepSeek AI is a chatbot and large language model that has rapidly gained global popularity.
Launched in early 2025, DeepSeek’s free app quickly shot to the top of app store charts, even surpassing OpenAI’s ChatGPT in downloads.
Tech enthusiasts and everyday users alike have been drawn to its powerful, GPT-4-rivalling capabilities and the fact that it costs nothing to try.
However, with this surge in popularity comes a growing debate over safety.
Experts and officials have raised concerns about data privacy, IT security risks, and the broader implications of using DeepSeek.
Given how pervasive AI tools are becoming, it’s essential to ask: is DeepSeek safe to use?
DeepSeek AI is an advanced large language model (LLM) and chatbot developed by a Chinese company also named DeepSeek.
It was first released to the public in January 2025 as a free mobile and web app powered by the DeepSeek V3 model.
Like other generative AI tools (such as ChatGPT or Claude), DeepSeek can produce human-like text in response to user prompts.
People use it for a wide range of tasks, from writing assistance and coding help to language translation and data analysis.
The DeepSeek model employs a mixture-of-experts architecture.
This allows it to handle queries efficiently by activating different specialist parts of the model for different tasks.
This design has led to impressive performance in areas like complex mathematics and programming, even rivaling top Western AI models on some benchmarks.
Crucially, DeepSeek is presented as open-source.
The company has released its model under a permissive license, meaning developers worldwide can download the model’s weights and build on them.
This openness has spurred a community around DeepSeek.
Hundreds of derivative models and integrations have appeared on AI platforms, and researchers are excited by its innovations in efficiency.
Its rapid adoption and community-driven growth have made DeepSeek one of the most talked-about AI tools of 2025, setting it apart as an unconventional challenger in the AI landscape.
The straightforward answer of whether DeepSeek is safe to use is mixed.
DeepSeek AI can be used safely for general purposes, but there are significant caveats regarding privacy and security.
From a functionality standpoint, the DeepSeek app itself does not appear to contain malware or cause direct harm to devices in normal use.
Many users have tried it and found it helpful for generating content or answering questions, much like they would use ChatGPT.
However, cybersecurity experts urge caution and advise treating DeepSeek as potentially unsafe for sensitive data.
The primary reason is how DeepSeek handles user information.
According to its own privacy policy, the app collects extensive data.
This includes your chat history, personal details, device identifiers, and even keystroke patterns.
This is all stored on servers located in China.
Under China’s laws, companies may be compelled to share data with the government, so any information you enter into DeepSeek could theoretically be accessed by Chinese authorities.
This has led to serious privacy concerns in other countries.
For example, some universities and businesses have explicitly banned using DeepSeek for any confidential or personal matters, fearing the data might not be secure.
Beyond privacy, official evaluations of DeepSeek’s safety have been wary.
Various government agencies have examined the app and, finding unresolved risks, taken action.
The US House of Representatives’ IT department warned staff that DeepSeek’s app could be exploited by criminals.
Due to this, the app is restricted on House devices.
Likewise, multiple governments in Europe and Asia have either banned the DeepSeek app or launched investigations into its data practices.
While no catastrophic incident has been publicly attributed to DeepSeek’s use, these preemptive measures suggest that authorities do not fully trust it.
DeepSeek AI comes with several risks and concerns that users should understand.
Below are the key risk areas associated with using DeepSeek:
DeepSeek collects a large amount of user data and stores it in China.
There is uncertainty over how long this data is kept and who has access.
The company states data is retained ‘as long as necessary’ and can be shared with advertising and analytics partners.
The worry is that user information might be accessed by the company’s partners or even the Chinese government under national laws.
Investigations have revealed that DeepSeek’s app has had serious security flaws.
For instance, cybersecurity researchers found the iOS app was sending some device data unencrypted over the internet.
DeepSeek even disabled certain Apple security protections, meaning an attacker on the same network could intercept or tamper with the data being transmitted.
Additionally, an early 2025 audit discovered that DeepSeek’s developers used outdated encryption (3DES) with a hard-coded key in the app, making it trivial for skilled hackers to decipher.
Such poor security practices suggest other hidden vulnerabilities may exist.
These issues put users at risk of their data being hacked or manipulated.
A major incident occurred in January 2025 when researchers found an unsecured DeepSeek database online, exposing chat histories, API keys, and other sensitive backend information.
This data leak affected potentially a large number of users and highlighted the platform’s weak internal safeguards.
Although DeepSeek claimed to have fixed the leak, it confirmed critics’ fears that the app’s data could be a treasure trove for attackers if not properly secured.
Like any AI language model, DeepSeek can sometimes produce incorrect or misleading answers.
This phenomenon is often called AI ‘hallucination’.
While DeepSeek is quite advanced, it is not infallible.
It might confidently give you false information or biased content without intending to deceive.
This is a risk especially if someone relies on DeepSeek’s answers for important decisions or factual information.
Mistakes in code suggestions, incorrect medical or legal advice, or fabricated ‘facts’ can all occur if the model goes off-track.
Moreover, because DeepSeek’s training might include state-influenced data, there are concerns it may censor or skew certain topics.
Reports show the chatbot refuses or sidesteps questions on politically sensitive issues (e.g. Tiananmen Square or Taiwan independence) in line with Chinese censorship rules.
This built-in bias means users might not get the full truth on certain subjects, which is a form of misinformation by omission.
Any powerful AI tool can be misused, and DeepSeek is no exception.
Criminals could exploit DeepSeek to generate convincing disinformation, spam, or even phishing content.
There’s a fear that easy access to an advanced AI model could enable more realistic scam emails or deepfake text generation at scale.
The model could also be used to assist in harmful coding or other unethical activities if safeguards fail.
While these risks are not unique to DeepSeek, the fact that it is free and relatively unrestricted might make it an attractive tool for criminals.
If you choose to use DeepSeek AI, there are several precautions you can take to minimise the risks and use the tool more safely:
Treat DeepSeek like a public forum.
Never input confidential or personally identifying data into your chats.
This includes things like your full name, address, login credentials, financial details, or any private documents.
Since DeepSeek logs your prompts and responses, keeping such data out of it is the first step in protecting your privacy.
Assume that anything you type might be seen or stored by others, and you won’t overshare.
It’s wise to limit DeepSeek to casual, non-critical tasks.
For example, using it to brainstorm ideas, translate a paragraph, or get coding tips is relatively low-risk.
But you should avoid using it for work projects involving proprietary data, or for crucial decisions without verification.
Always verify important information that DeepSeek gives you.
If the AI provides a factual claim or a piece of advice that matters, cross-check it through reliable sources or another tool.
DeepSeek can and does make mistakes or hallucinate, so don’t blindly trust it on things like medical, legal, or financial advice.
Use it as a helpful guide, not an authoritative oracle.
While using DeepSeek, ensure your device and network are secure to mitigate external threats.
For instance, use up-to-date antivirus software and avoid using the app on public Wi-Fi without protection.
A VPN can add a layer of encryption to your internet traffic.
This won’t stop DeepSeek from seeing your data, but it can prevent eavesdroppers on your network from intercepting unencrypted data that the app might send.
Good cyber hygiene on your part will reduce the chances of someone else exploiting any weakness in DeepSeek’s app.
If DeepSeek’s risks give you pause, it’s worth considering some alternative AI models and platforms that offer similar capabilities.
There are several other AI chatbots and LLM-based services which might suit your needs with different trade-offs in safety, privacy, and performance.
Here are a few notable alternatives to DeepSeek:
ChatGPT is one of the most well-known AI chatbots globally.
Powered by OpenAI’s GPT-4 model (and updated iterations), it excels at a wide range of tasks and often produces reliable, high-quality responses.
Its strengths include strong general knowledge, better factual accuracy, and versatility in creative and coding tasks.
The service is backed by a US company with a clearer privacy policy and opt-out options for data usage, especially if you pay for enterprise plans.
However, unlike DeepSeek, the full GPT-4 model usually requires a subscription (or payment) for unlimited access, and it is not open-source.
Claude is another advanced chatbot created by Anthropic, an AI safety-focused company.
Claude is designed with an emphasis on ethical behaviour and reducing harmful outputs.
It’s known for being more cautious and tries hard to avoid giving disallowed or sensitive content.
Claude performs especially well in complex reasoning, summarising long texts, and providing thoughtful answers.
Privacy-wise, Anthropic doesn’t retain conversation data beyond providing the service, and it has no links to China.
Gemini is Google’s AI chatbot, built on the company’s PaLM/LaMDA models.
It’s freely available and integrated with Google’s ecosystem.
Gemini can handle similar tasks as other AIs, and it has the advantage of being able to pull information from Google Search in real time for up-to-date answers.
Being from Google, it adheres to Google’s privacy standards and data is stored on servers in jurisdictions like the US or EU.
If you appreciated DeepSeek’s open-source nature, there are other community-driven models to consider.
For instance, Meta’s LLaMA 2/3 models are available to researchers and can be run locally or on custom servers.
These models are highly efficient and can be fine-tuned for specific tasks.
Another example is Mistral 7B, a smaller open model that prioritises privacy by allowing local use.
Open-source models put you in control.
They are often free to use and modify, but the downside is that you need technical expertise to get them running.
Perplexity is an AI-powered answer engine that combines a language model with live internet search.
When you ask it a question, it not only gives a conversational answer but also cites sources from the web.
This is useful if you want more trustworthy answers with references.
In terms of safety and privacy, Perplexity does handle your queries on its servers, so you’d need to trust their data practices.
DeepSeek AI is undeniably an impressive and influential player in the AI world.
Its rise shows the appetite for powerful AI tools and the innovations possible outside the traditional Silicon Valley sphere.
However, as we have talked about, the question of ‘Is DeepSeek safe to use?’ does not yield a simple yes or no answer.
In general, the tool itself functions as advertised and can be used safely for nonsensitive tasks, but serious questions remain about data privacy, security vulnerabilities, and trustworthiness.
The decision to use DeepSeek should be a balanced one.
Weigh its benefits against the potential costs to your privacy and security.
By understanding both the promise and the pitfalls of DeepSeek, you can make the choice that best suits your needs.
Always use such AI services responsibly, and you’ll be better positioned to benefit from them safely.
