"It was launched about 10 days ago. Overnight, it became a sensation, and basically, it became the number one app on Apple App Store. Tens of millions of people have downloaded the app to their device," said Andrew Hoog.
That's why Hoog and his team at Chicago's NowSecure decided to take a deep dive into the DeepSeek app on iOS used for iPhones. NowSecure issued a 23-page report on it.
"We found three serious vulnerabilities in the application as well as a number of privacy issues that, overall, mean that your data and your identity is placed at risk when you use the DeepSeek iOS," Hoog said.
NowSecure has been featured in several I-Team reports over the years, and it analyzes the security of hundreds of apps.
"They know a lot more about you than your computer browser does. They can access camera, location how you hold your phone, a lot of info that can ultimately indicate who you are," Hoog said.
Hoog says your information on DeepSeek is also in the hands of the Chinese company which owns it.
"All that data is sent to China, which means the data is governed by Chinese law. Their government has a right to request any data for any reasons," Hoog said.
And cybersecurity researchers at Wiz Research recently said that DeepSeek had a significant data breach leak, exposing over 1 million records. Hoog says that's another reason to pay attention to his study.
"They send identifying information about your device over the internet, but they don't protect it in any way. That means anyone on internet could possibly listen to that, or hackers could change that information and mess with integrity of your data, manipulate it," Hoog said.
NowSecure also says that DeepSeek uses dated encryption which is 10 years old, and that the app stores your username and password and encryption key to your device without protection. ABC7 emailed and sent a message to DeepSeek on X, and we haven't yet heard back.
ABC7 also reached out to spokespeople at Apple since the study focused on the app on the iOS Apple platform. We have not yet gotten a response.
Hoog says if you want to use DeepSeek, he suggests using it on a desktop, which is safer. That is because browsers, unlike apps, do not allow as much access to personal information.