Never heard of them before. Strange. But huawei now uses deepin.
They invented a lot applications. Looks like with good usability. Here is a list:
https://www.deepin.org/en/original/
Lots of deepin apps are already available from packages.debian.org:
https://packages.debian.org/search?keywords=deepin
Maybe something we could use?
deepin-deb-installer is probably the most interesting. All other tools have better known/used alternatives. We can add a screenshot and video recorder recommendation to the relevant wiki pages for people to use. I don’t think we should ship them though unless there is popular demand shown in a poll.
Deepin had analytics in their app store before and was called by some as “spyware”.
https://www.deepin.org/en/2018/04/14/linux-deepin-is-not-spyware/
Deepin has to inform all those interested that our Appstore backend is a website and cnzz is a famous internet statistics analysis service provider that collects website anonymous usage information such as browser user agents, resolution, etc. and which is just a same product as Google Analytics. Deepin uses cnzz to collect website access information and so to know how to improve our website experience and detect website problems. No private information can be collected this way just by the data above mentioned.
“private information” is a bit vague seeing as even IP addresses aren’t classified as personal information.
Deepin being based in China and their analytics provider also being based in China is a few more red flags seeing as the Chinese government isn’t exactly pro-privacy.
I assume the source of packages in Debian are vetted A) against spyware and B) malicious backdoors. Otherwise you’re right that there is no concept of free speech to protect against being compelled to cooperate and poison code.