DeepSeek AI collects, stores US user data in China sparking eerily similar national security concerns that forced TikTok crackdown

DeepSeek, the Chinese app that sparked a $1 trillion US market meltdown this week, is storing its fast-growing troves of US user data in China – posing many of the same national security risks that led Congress to crack down on TikTok.The artificial intelligence chatbot topped the charts in Apple’s App Store and Google’s Play Store on Tuesday.DeepSeek has been downloaded more than 2 million times since its debut on Jan.

15, with most coming in the last three days, according to AppMagic.While rival chatbots including ChatGPT collect vast quantities of user data, the use of China-based servers by DeepSeek — created by math geek hedge-fund investor Liang Wenfeng — are a key difference and a glaring privacy risk for Americans, experts told The Post.“What sets this context apart is that DeepSeek is a Chinese company based in China,” said Angela Zhang, a law professor at the University of Southern California focused on Chinese tech regulations.“This raises the question of whether the collection of data such as IP addresses and keystroke patterns could pose a national security threat,” Zhang added.DeepSeek’s terms of service disclose that user data is stored “in secure servers located in the People’s Republic of China.” The company also says it automatically collects data on personal information such as “device model, operating system, keystroke patterns or rhythms, IP address, and system language.”All China-based companies are subject to the Chinese Communist Party’s cybersecurity laws, which mandate that it share data with the government upon request. The Chinese chatbot has also displayed signs of censorship and bias – including refusing to answer prompts about China’s leader Xi Jinping, the Tiananmen Square massacre of 1989, whether Taiwan is a country and if China has committed human rights abuses against Uighurs in Xinjiang.

In some cases, DeepSeek begins generating a response — only to stop itself mid-sentence and write that ...