DeepSeek
DeepSeek (Hangzhou DeepSeek AI) · People’s Republic of China
What it is
A general-purpose AI assistant from the Chinese lab DeepSeek, available as a free web and mobile chatbot (a general model, and a reasoning mode branded "DeepThink"), through a paid developer API (the Open Platform), and as open-weight models you can download and run yourself. It drafts, answers, reasons and codes.
How it works
DeepSeek builds its own large language models and releases many of them as open weights under a permissive (MIT) licence, which means they can be downloaded and self-hosted — a genuine difference from the other tools here, all of which are closed services. (The model versions move quickly; we describe the family.) How your data is handled depends entirely on which of the three paths you use: the hosted app, the hosted API, or your own self-hosted deployment.
Who is behind it
- Owner
- Hangzhou DeepSeek AI Co., Ltd., owned and funded by the quantitative hedge fund High-Flyer; founder Liang Wenfeng is chief executive of both. (Reported ownership percentages conflict across sources, so we do not state a figure.)
- Founded
- DeepSeek was founded on 17 July 2023 (its backer High-Flyer in 2016).
- Headquarters
- Hangzhou, People’s Republic of China. The terms are governed by "the laws of the People’s Republic of China in the mainland".
Plans
- DeepSeek app / web (free) · Consumer (free / paid)Data stored in the PRC under PRC law; trains on your inputs by default.
- DeepSeek Open Platform (API) · API directNo no-training clause in the terms; PRC storage and governing law apply.
- Open-weight models (self-hosted) · Self-hosted / localDownloadable MIT-licensed weights you run yourself; data never reaches DeepSeek.
How it handles your data
For the hosted service, DeepSeek is the cautionary outlier. Its own privacy policy states that the personal information it collects is stored in the People’s Republic of China, and its terms are governed by PRC law; the consumer app trains on your inputs by default. The often-quoted "30-day retention" figure is not in the current policy. The Open Platform (API) terms contain no clause promising not to train on your inputs, so we treat the API as offering no no-training assurance until that changes. Read alongside the PRC legal framework for state access to data held by PRC companies, and a broad clause permitting disclosure to public authorities, the practical position is a loss of control over confidential data that a New Zealand professional cannot accept. This is an inference from the stored-in-PRC and PRC-governing-law terms, not the separate and contested allegation that DeepSeek "sends data to the Chinese government". Self-hosting the open-weight model is a different proposition entirely and is far safer: the data never reaches DeepSeek, and the PRC storage and governing-law terms do not apply, though you then own the security of the deployment, and ordinary supply-chain diligence on a PRC-origin model artifact is warranted.
Sources for this description
- Privacy Policy — DeepSeeklive sourcePerma.cc recordas at 31 May 2026
- Terms of Use (consumer) — DeepSeeklive sourcePerma.cc recordas at 31 May 2026
- Open Platform (API) Terms of Service — DeepSeeklive sourcePerma.cc recordas at 31 May 2026
- DeepSeek (company facts and open-weight models) — DeepSeeklive sourceas at 31 May 2026
What is safe, on which plan
Each cell summarises what the provider’s terms and the applicable rules say. The colour is our summary of the sources, not advice — select a cell to read the reasoning and follow the sources yourself.
- Green
- Amber
- Red
- Black
- Not yet assessed
| Data category | Consumer (free / paid) | API direct | Self-hosted / local |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Public information | |||
| 2. Internal non-confidential | |||
| 3. Internal confidential (non-privileged) | |||
| 4. Legally privileged | |||
| 5. Personal information (Privacy Act 2020) | |||
| 6. Sensitive personal information | |||
| 7. Children’s information | |||
| 8. Court-protected material |
1. Public information
- Consumer (free / paid)
- API direct
- Self-hosted / local
2. Internal non-confidential
- Consumer (free / paid)
- API direct
- Self-hosted / local
3. Internal confidential (non-privileged)
- Consumer (free / paid)
- API direct
- Self-hosted / local
4. Legally privileged
- Consumer (free / paid)
- API direct
- Self-hosted / local
5. Personal information (Privacy Act 2020)
- Consumer (free / paid)
- API direct
- Self-hosted / local
6. Sensitive personal information
- Consumer (free / paid)
- API direct
- Self-hosted / local
7. Children’s information
- Consumer (free / paid)
- API direct
- Self-hosted / local
8. Court-protected material
- Consumer (free / paid)
- API direct
- Self-hosted / local
Select any cell to see what the sources say and why.
Statements about provider terms, plans, and defaults will go stale. This profile names its last review date above.
Where to next
Our framework
The reference behind every answer: the eight kinds of information, the five plans, and what each colour means.
Our frameworkGuidance
Our view on the four questions to ask before you use a tool — confidentiality, privilege, privacy, and the professional rules.
GuidanceAbout us
Who is behind this, how we keep it reliable, and why you can trust it.
About us