Short answer
DeepSeek may be suitable for low-sensitivity tasks if you are comfortable with the applicable provider’s data practices. Don’t submit confidential, personal, regulated, or otherwise sensitive information unless you have confirmed that the exact service and deployment meet your requirements.
“DeepSeek” can mean the official app or website, the official API, a third-party service offering a DeepSeek model, or model weights that someone runs themselves. These are different data routes—not one shared privacy boundary. DeepSeek’s privacy policy applies to the apps, websites, software, and related services that link to or reference it. The policy identifies Hangzhou DeepSeek Artificial Intelligence Co., Ltd. as the controller for covered services. It lists prompts and uploaded content among data it may collect and says personal data is directly processed and stored in China. (DeepSeek Privacy Policy)
The policy excerpts available here give an account-status example for retaining information needed to provide services and say users may request rectification, erasure, or restriction of processing. They do not establish a complete retention schedule, explain all deletion limits or exceptions, or specify all recipients and access conditions. The stated rights are not a guarantee that deleting a chat removes every copy. Check the policy and applicable account controls for details that matter to your use.
Data boundaries by route
| Route | Who handles your request? | What the available documentation establishes | Practical boundary |
|---|---|---|---|
| Official app or website | Hangzhou DeepSeek Artificial Intelligence Co., Ltd. | The policy lists text and voice inputs, prompts, uploaded files and photos, feedback, and chat history among information it may collect. It describes purposes including providing services and training or improving technology. It says personal data is directly collected, processed, and stored in China. For service provision, it gives “as long as you have an account” as a retention example and says users may request rectification, erasure, or restriction of processing. The excerpts do not specify a complete retention schedule, all deletion limits or exceptions, all recipients or access conditions, or account controls for these requests. (DeepSeek Privacy Policy) | Treat prompts and uploads as information shared with DeepSeek. Don’t assume deleting a chat removes every copy or changes all processing; check the policy and controls applicable to your account. |
| Official API | DeepSeek’s Open Platform for the API service; your organization also handles its own application and end-user data. | The Open Platform Terms apply to API and developer-tool use and state an effective date of April 29, 2026. The consumer privacy policy says it does not cover personal-data processing for end users accessing downstream systems or applications developed using Open Platform services. The excerpts available here do not establish a specific API retention period or a clear API-specific no-training commitment. (DeepSeek Privacy Policy; Open Platform Terms) | Don’t infer that API data is excluded from training, retained for a particular period, or covered by an enterprise no-retention arrangement. Get terms that apply to your use case in writing before sending sensitive data. |
| Third-party platform or app | The company operating that platform may control the app, logs, account data, and other parts of the request path; DeepSeek may also process a model call if the platform routes it there. | DeepSeek’s policy says its scope does not cover personal-data processing for end users accessing downstream systems or applications developed using Open Platform services. (DeepSeek Privacy Policy) | Read the platform’s terms and privacy/security documentation. Ask whether it stores prompts or outputs, sends them to DeepSeek or another provider, and uses them for improvement. A DeepSeek model name alone does not answer those questions. |
| Self-hosted weights | The person or organization operating the model and its infrastructure. | DeepSeek’s model repository documents a “How to Run Locally” option. That establishes that local operation is documented for that model; it does not certify a particular setup as private or secure. (DeepSeek-V3 README) | Prompts can remain within infrastructure you control only if the full request path stays there. Check the inference stack, logs, monitoring, tools, plugins, backups, and any external services. You take on the operational security work. |
A note on the API
The Open Platform Terms describe API and developer-tool use. The consumer privacy policy covers services that link to or reference it, while separately saying it does not cover downstream developers’ processing of end users’ personal data. The excerpts available here do not establish a definitive API-specific retention schedule or a clear promise that API inputs are never used for training. Treat those points as unresolved—not as assurances in either direction—and get answers that apply to your account and intended use. (DeepSeek Privacy Policy)
Checklist before you use it
- Identify the exact route. Is it DeepSeek’s official app, an API key from the Open Platform, a third-party chatbot, or weights running on infrastructure you operate? Record the provider and any services between you and the model.
- Classify what you plan to send. Check for personal information, customer or employee records, credentials, source code, unpublished work, contracts, financial details, health information, or internal documents. A prompt can disclose sensitive information even when it contains no obvious name.
- Check the applicable policy and terms. Look for the service and account type they cover, the effective or last-updated date, and any regional terms. Don’t assume the consumer app’s rules, an API’s rules, and a third party’s rules are identical.
- Find answers to the handling questions that matter to you. Confirm collection, purposes and training use, retention, deletion, access, sharing, storage and processing location, and any available controls. For an API, ask specifically whether prompts and outputs are logged, retained, or used for model improvement and whether a different contractual option applies.
- Check organizational requirements. Confirm that your employer, client, regulator, or contract permits the provider and data route. For a self-hosted setup, check who can access logs and backups and whether any tools or telemetry send data elsewhere.
- Test with non-sensitive material first. A redacted or synthetic example can help check whether a workflow works without exposing a real person’s or customer’s information.
Stop condition: If you cannot verify a handling or security requirement that matters for the data, don’t submit that data through that route. Use a less-sensitive example, remove identifying or confidential details, or choose a route whose relevant controls are documented and approved for the use.
Example: summarizing a customer contract
Suppose an employee wants a quick summary of a contract containing customer names, pricing, and confidential clauses. Sending the full document to the official app would submit uploaded content to a service whose policy describes collection of uploads and storage of personal data in China. If the organization’s requirements prohibit that disclosure, the employee should not upload it. They could instead use a redacted or synthetic sample, or seek approval for an organization-operated deployment—after confirming that the deployment actually keeps prompts, logs, and related data within the approved boundary. The model being self-hostable does not itself verify the security of that setup. (DeepSeek Privacy Policy)
When is DeepSeek a reasonable choice?
- Potentially reasonable: General questions or drafts that contain no sensitive information, when the user is comfortable with the named provider’s documented handling.
- Check first: API or third-party use where retention, training, location, or onward sharing affects a business decision. Obtain route-specific answers rather than relying on assumptions based on the model name.
- Avoid unless approved: Personal, confidential, regulated, or customer data when the required controls or data location cannot be verified. An organization may instead use an approved service or a genuinely contained self-hosted deployment, subject to its own security review.
This is a data-handling decision, not a claim that every DeepSeek model or service is inherently safe or unsafe. The captured research does not substantiate a blanket safety verdict or a specific current security incident; the practical decision should turn on the route, the information, and the controls you can verify.