Deepseek AI developed by China has raised many privacy and security concerns since its launch, and some governments no longer offer service or initiate research in their data management practices. However, in terms of privacy, Chinese chatbot may not be the worst offender.
According to the recent data from Surfshark, one of the best VPN suppliers in the market, Google Gemini takes the gold medal for the application of the most data hungry chatbot. Deep comes, in fact, only Fifth of the 10 most popular applications for the collection of aggressive data.
Surfshark researchers also found a worrying 30% of the analyzed chatbots share user data, such as contact data, location and search and navigation history, with third parties, including data corridors.
The real cost of using AI chatbots
As explained by Tomas Stamulis, Surfshark Security Director, the applications we use every day regularly collect our personal information. While some of these data are necessary for the functionality of applications, others are linked to our identities. He said: “Chatbot applications can go even further processing and storing conversations.”
To determine the real privacy price set to the AI chatbots, Surfshark researchers analyzed the privacy details of the 10 most popular applications in the Apple App Store. Then compared how many types of data each application collect, if you collect any data linked to its users and if the application includes third -party advertisers.
The analysis discovered an average of 11 different types of data from the 35 possible. As mentioned above, Google Gemini It stands out as the most hungry service of data, collecting 22 of these types of data, including highly confidential data such as precise location, user content, the device contact list, navigation history and more.
Among the applications analyzed, only Google Gemini, Co-pilotand Perplexity They were found to collect precise location data. The controversial Veteran Chatbot remains right in the middle, collecting 11 unique types of data, such as user entry such as chat history. The main problem here, and what attracted privacy complaints under the rules of GDPR, is that the supplier’s privacy policy claims to retain this data during the time necessary in the servers located in China.
Your rival, ChatgptIt is hot on the Gemini heels, with 10 types of data collected. These include contact information, user content, identifiers, use data and diagnoses. It is also worth noting that, although Chatgpt also collects the chat history, you can choose to use temporary chats to ensure that this information is eliminated after 30 days, or requests the elimination of personal data from its training sets.
However, Apps data collection is just a side of the privacy problem.
This is because Stamulis explains: “These data could be used within the company or shared in third -party networks, potentially reaching hundreds of partners and leading to highly specific ads or an increase in spam calls.”
The researchers also found that 30% of these chatbot applications also track user data. This means that user or device data collected from the application is linked to third -party data for advertising or advertising measurement purposes.
Co-pilot, Poeand Jasper They are the three applications that collect data used to track it. Essentially, these data “could be sold to data corridors or used to show specific ads in their application,” Surfshark experts said. Copilot and POE only collect device ID for this purpose, while Jasper brings together the device IDs, product interaction data, advertising data and other use data, which refer to “any other data on the user activity in the application.”
“As a general rule, the more information it is shared, the greater the risk of data leaks,” said Stamulis, adding that it is known that cybercriminals exploit these incidents to create personalized phishing attacks that could lead to massive financial losses.
Stamulis recommends taking into account the information it provides to chatbots, reviewing their exchange configuration and disabled chat history whenever possible.
