Doubao

Is Doubao safe?

Doubao is ByteDance's AI assistant and the most used AI app in China, with 382 million monthly users in May 2026 according to QuestMobile, almost three times DeepSeek's figure. It answers questions, writes, codes and makes images and video. There is no known breach and no fine, and the controls are better than DeepSeek's: one switch stops your chats training the model. The catch is the one you would expect. Doubao collects a lot, including precise location, tracks you with identifiers, and keeps your data in China. We score it 46/100, ahead of DeepSeek and TikTok.

Doubao is a China-only app

When we checked in October 2026, Doubao was in the China App Store and missing from the US, UK and German stores. If you search for it in the US App Store you will find apps with Doubao in the name from developers unrelated to ByteDance. Treat those as copycats: you have no way to know where they send your data.

ByteDance's assistant for other markets is Dola, formerly Cici. It is published by SPRING (SG) Pte. Ltd. in Singapore and is in the UK, German, Japanese and Korean stores, but not the US one. Its privacy policy, updated in July 2026, says data may be stored on servers in Malaysia, Singapore and Japan and shared with its corporate group, and it lists a bytedance.com address for its Brazilian data protection officer. It trains on your chats unless you turn that off, infers traits such as age and gender, and works with ad partners. This page scores the Chinese Doubao app; Dola has the same owner but a different legal entity, data location and label.

What Doubao collects

The China App Store label says identifiers may be used to track you across other companies' apps. Linked to your identity are precise and coarse location, email, phone number, photos and videos, other content you enter, and device and user IDs. The listing also notes that the app may use your location even when it is not open. Audio and search history are listed as not linked to you.

The privacy policy, updated on 10 September 2026, is detailed and in Chinese only. The key points:

• Personal data from operations in China is stored inside the PRC, and the company says it does not currently send it abroad.
• Your inputs, instructions and Doubao's replies may be used to train models after de-identification, unless you turn off the "help improve the model" switch under Settings, Privacy and permissions.
• Microphone, photo library and Bluetooth access stay off until you grant them.
• Your phone number may be used for marketing texts, which you can unsubscribe from.
• Under-14s need a guardian's consent.
• Doubao says it has filed its algorithm and model with the authorities and passed a level-3 assessment under China's information security protection scheme.

Storage in China means Chinese law governs access. The EU has no adequacy decision for China, and European regulators have warned that Chinese authorities have far-reaching rights to data held by Chinese companies, most recently over DeepSeek. That matters most if you are outside China and somehow use the Chinese app.

The Doubao AI phone

On 1 December 2025 ByteDance and ZTE launched the nubia M153, sold as the "Doubao AI Phone". Its assistant runs at system level with elevated permissions and taps through other apps for you. Within days, according to Caixin, WeChat and Taobao restricted it amid concerns about privacy and security, and ByteDance switched off its control of WeChat and limited it in financial and gaming apps. Reports that regulators had summoned ByteDance executives over cybersecurity and data security were denied by a source quoted by TechNode. The regular Doubao app does not have these powers, but the episode shows how much access ByteDance wants an assistant to have.

Censorship and minors

Chinese rules require generative AI services to follow state content rules, so Doubao filters political topics; do not rely on it for Chinese politics or history. It has no feed of strangers' posts, so scam and harassment risk inside the app is low. The China App Store rates it 13+ and lists parental controls among its in-app controls.

How to use Doubao more safely

1. Download Doubao or Dola only from the developer named above; skip lookalike apps.
2. Turn off "help improve the model" in Settings if you do not want your chats used for training.
3. Allow location only while using the app, or not at all.
4. Delete chats you do not need, and delete the account from Settings when you stop.
5. Keep work documents, ID numbers and health details out of it, as with any cloud chatbot.

How we scored it

Privacy (25) is the weakest factor: tracking identifiers, precise location and storage in China, the same level as DeepSeek. Security (45) is higher than DeepSeek's because no breach or open database has been reported. Transparency and control (55) reflects the training switch and easy deletion. The regulatory record (88) shows no fine or order. The only regulator contact is China's filing, which every generative AI service there must pass; it is a legal duty rather than a review of the app, so the score stays below 90.