Researchers have discovered that some DeepSeek chat pages shared via public links have been indexed by Google search, meaning content originally intended only for "access via link" may actually be found by many more people. This situation has once again raised concerns about the privacy settings of AI chat platforms.
Approximately 2000 pages are accessible.
The investigation found approximately 2,000 relevant public pages, with the chat content primarily created in 2026, peaking in April. Google's initial search results limit the number of pages displayed and indicate that similar pages have been omitted, but expanding the search reveals more indexed content.
Of the chats analyzed, approximately 31% were in Russian, about 20% in English, and the remainder in other languages. This means that the affected users were not limited to a single region.
Public links do not mean they are only accessible to the recipient.
DeepSeek will indicate that "anyone holding the link can view this conversation," but this is not explicitly stated, and search engines may also discover and index these pages.
This distinction is crucial. Many users might assume that only those who receive the link can open the page, unaware that the content may also appear in search results. Once a page is included in Google search, its access is no longer limited to the original share recipients.
The report states that some of the collected chat logs contain business code snippets, work assignments, private communications, and discussions related to financial matters.
Even after a link is deleted, it may still leave a temporary trace.
Search engines periodically recrawl web pages, so even if public links later become invalid or are deleted, page records, summary fragments, or cached information in search results may continue to appear for a period of time.
This increases the processing difficulty. Some users may only realize that the relevant information is searchable after the chat content has already been collected.
Users can now view and delete publicly shared links they create through DeepSeek's settings page. Normally, as long as a publicly accessible URL is accessible, search engine crawlers will treat it as a regular webpage; if the platform doesn't have access restrictions or use instructions to prevent indexing, such pages may appear in search results.
Additional information:The discovery was first disclosed by Konitzny on July 20, and Cybernews verified it on July 22. At the time of publication, DeepSeek had not yet publicly responded to the matter.
