It’s an AI privacy showdown. How much data does your favorite chatbot collect?
Amid growing concerns over Chinese AI models like DeepSeek, new research suggests that fears may be overblown — at least when it comes to data privacy. In fact, some popular US-based AI chatbots might be collecting even more of your personal information.
When DeepSeek debuted its flagship open-source AI model in January, the American tech industry was thrown into hysteria. Some embraced the competition — claiming this is «AI’s Sputnik moment» — but others? Well, not so much. Still, about 12 million users worldwide downloaded the AI chatbot two days after its launch. Numerous privacy and security concerns quickly surfaced about it, prompting private and government organizations to ban DeepSeek’s use in the US and abroad.
But here’s the twist — despite all the frenzy, DeepSeek isn’t the biggest data offender out there. Curious to know how your favorite AI chatbot stacks up when it comes to privacy? Let’s look at what Surfshark’s researchers have found.AI chatbots collect and track user data
Recent data from Surfshark, a well-known VPN provider, uncovered that Google Gemini is the most data-intensive AI chatbot app. DeepSeek, however, comes in fifth out of the 10 most popular applications.
The researchers analyzed the privacy details of the following chatbots that are the most popular on the Apple App Store: ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot, Perplexity, DeepSeek, Grok, Jasper, Poe, Claude and Pi.
