Why The U.S. Is Concerned About Deepseek And Should You Also Be Concerned?
— written by Francis on Jan. 31, 2025, 6:54 p.m.
We are all used to it. China releases a killer app and the USA, seemingly beat in ingenuity and innovativeness, pulls the data security card and bans the app. It's almost a cliche at this point. But what if the USA was not being a sore loser? What if, there's some truth to what they say? Let's dive deeper into Chinese data security laws.
China's data laws
China’s approach to data privacy is fundamentally different from the United States. Chinese laws, such as the Cybersecurity Law and the Data Security Law, require companies operating within the country to store user data locally and to hand over data to the government upon request. These laws have been a significant point of contention with the U.S. government, particularly regarding apps that collect massive amounts of user data, like DeepSeek, whose data is stored in servers located in China.
In China, the government has sweeping powers to access personal data under the guise of national security. This means that companies like DeepSeek could be legally compelled to share U.S. user data with the Chinese government, raising serious concerns about surveillance and misuse of that data. While these Chinese companies claim to store data securely and away from government reach, the potential for data access remains a serious risk under China’s stringent laws.
I'm not inclined to any political ideology, whether capitalist or communist, but I understand how this seems like a threat to USA whose capitalist ideologies have led to tensions against China's communist approach. But either way, I don't really feel safe having my personal data available to any government at will, whether capitalist or communist.
So what does this mean to us? The Chinese government has the ability to access your personal information and any information you share with DeepSeek at will, while information shared with ChatGPT are free from government access. So is there a secure way to use DeepSeek? Yes, just don't share any information you wouldn't want to be public to it. Also, DeepSeek is open-source. This means that if you want to, and have good hardware on your desktop or laptop, you can install it to run locally. That way, no data is sent to servers but is stored on your computer.
"But how do I do this," I hear you say. Well, here's a guide:
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