New research challenges the prevailing narrative about Chinese AI models posing the greatest privacy risks, revealing instead that popular American chatbots often collect more personal data. This counterintuitive finding comes amid heated international debate over AI ethics and regulation, as users worldwide increasingly rely on AI assistants while governments struggle to establish appropriate privacy safeguards across different jurisdictions.
The big picture: Despite widespread suspicion of Chinese-developed DeepSeek R1, research from VPN provider Surfshark finds it ranks only fifth for data collection among popular AI chatbots.
- American-developed Google Gemini tops the list as the most data-intensive AI chatbot, collecting 22 out of 35 possible user data types.
- The study analyzed privacy details for the ten most popular chatbots on Apple’s App Store, including ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot, Perplexity, DeepSeek, Grok, Jasper, Poe, Claude, and Pi.
Key details: DeepSeek’s controversial Chinese origins have fueled privacy concerns, prompting bans by government and private organizations in the US and elsewhere.
- DeepSeek’s flagship open-source AI model debuted in January, attracting approximately 12 million users within just two days of its launch.
- The company’s privacy policy acknowledges storing personal information on secure servers located in China, which has intensified concerns among Western users.
By the numbers: Google Gemini collects the most extensive range of sensitive user information among popular AI chatbots.
- Gemini harvests highly sensitive data including precise location, user content, contacts lists, and browsing history.
- Only three chatbots—Gemini, Copilot, and Perplexity—collect precise location data from users.
- Approximately 30% of chatbots share sensitive user data with third parties, and the same percentage actively track user data.
For comparison: DeepSeek collects an average of 11 unique data types, focusing primarily on contact information, user content, and diagnostics.
- ChatGPT, developed by US-based OpenAI, collects 10 unique data types, including contact information, user content, identifiers, usage data, and diagnostics.
- This places both popular AI assistants in the middle range for data collection practices among the chatbots analyzed.
Why it matters: The findings highlight how geopolitical tensions may distort public perception of privacy risks, with users potentially overlooking excessive data collection by domestic companies while focusing concerns on foreign alternatives.
- The research emerges amid an escalating AI arms race between the US and China, which continues to raise profound privacy, security, and ethical questions on both sides.
Recent Stories
DOE fusion roadmap targets 2030s commercial deployment as AI drives $9B investment
The Department of Energy has released a new roadmap targeting commercial-scale fusion power deployment by the mid-2030s, though the plan lacks specific funding commitments and relies on scientific breakthroughs that have eluded researchers for decades. The strategy emphasizes public-private partnerships and positions AI as both a research tool and motivation for developing fusion energy to meet data centers' growing electricity demands. The big picture: The DOE's roadmap aims to "deliver the public infrastructure that supports the fusion private sector scale up in the 2030s," but acknowledges it cannot commit to specific funding levels and remains subject to Congressional appropriations. Why...
Oct 17, 2025Tying it all together: Credo’s purple cables power the $4B AI data center boom
Credo, a Silicon Valley semiconductor company specializing in data center cables and chips, has seen its stock price more than double this year to $143.61, following a 245% surge in 2024. The company's signature purple cables, which cost between $300-$500 each, have become essential infrastructure for AI data centers, positioning Credo to capitalize on the trillion-dollar AI infrastructure expansion as hyperscalers like Amazon, Microsoft, and Elon Musk's xAI rapidly build out massive computing facilities. What you should know: Credo's active electrical cables (AECs) are becoming indispensable for connecting the massive GPU clusters required for AI training and inference. The company...
Oct 17, 2025Vatican launches Latin American AI network for human development
The Vatican hosted a two-day conference bringing together 50 global experts to explore how artificial intelligence can advance peace, social justice, and human development. The event launched the Latin American AI Network for Integral Human Development and established principles for ethical AI governance that prioritize human dignity over technological advancement. What you should know: The Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, the Vatican's research body for social issues, organized the "Digital Rerum Novarum" conference on October 16-17, combining academic research with practical AI applications. Participants included leading experts from MIT, Microsoft, Columbia University, the UN, and major European institutions. The conference...