DeepSeek Pulled from App Stores in Italy. Here’s Why

Agencies Ghacks
Jan 30, 2025
Misc
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DeepSeek, the Chinese AI company that recently surged to the top of the Apple App Store charts in the U.S., has been removed from Apple and Google app stores in Italy amid privacy concerns and an ongoing GDPR investigation. The Italian data protection authority, Garante, is scrutinizing the app’s data collection practices, specifically whether user data is being stored in China.

Pasquale Stanzione, President of Garante, confirmed that DeepSeek has 20 days to respond to inquiries regarding the types of data it collects, its sources, and how the information is stored. If the company fails to comply, further actions could follow based on GDPR regulations.

Italy is not the only country investigating DeepSeek’s privacy policies. The Irish Data Protection Commission has also requested details on how the company processes user data from Irish citizens. Meanwhile, the U.S. government is looking into allegations that DeepSeek may have used proprietary data from American companies to train its AI models.

Despite the removal from app stores in Italy, users who previously downloaded DeepSeek can continue using the app without restrictions. The app remains available in other European countries, though additional regulatory actions could follow as investigations progress.

As global concerns over AI-driven data privacy grow, DeepSeek's future in Western markets may depend on its ability to comply with stringent data protection laws like the GDPR. The company’s response to regulators in the coming weeks could determine whether it faces further bans or restrictions.

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Comments

  1. Richard said on January 31, 2025 at 8:40 pm
    Reply

    Quote “the U.S. government is looking into allegations that DeepSeek may have used proprietary data from American companies to train its AI models” – as distinct from US companies using everyone’s proprietaty data to train their AI Models?

  2. boris said on January 30, 2025 at 6:02 pm
    Reply

    I downloaded a recommended DeepSeek model to run locally (with disabled internet connection while it was running). And it is as slow as other models I tried before (It ran at 70% CPU and waited for 5 minutes for every answer. Even simplest ones). It also tiptoes around or ignores all political or social questions. Answers were not even close to ChatGPT level. This was not a scientific survey, just a dozen of random questions.

  3. Bert said on January 30, 2025 at 2:22 pm
    Reply

    Both Google and Apple need to tighten the rules, and do a deeper look into all apps, and the process they use for approval of apps. There has been lots of both malware and spyware found in apps long after they were approved for both of the app stores. Also the approval of each update that are made to all apps also need to be looked at much deeper.

    All data being collected needs to be documented clearly and made available to and verified by the approval process, and to those that download the apps.

    1. Karl said on January 30, 2025 at 5:53 pm
      Reply

      *knocks on table*
      Yeah, police everything!
      *knocks sum more*

  4. John said on January 30, 2025 at 1:31 pm
    Reply

    Interesting that this app was approved without any real concern for its connection to China. Especially given all the TikTok issues in the US.

    1. Allwynd said on January 31, 2025 at 9:53 pm
      Reply

      What is there to be concerned about China? All apps from the West should be audited for all the data they collect, steal and sell to advertising companies, governments and whatnot.

      I’m sick and tired of naive and ignorant people who are indoctrinated with anti-China scaremongering and parrot learned words that aren’t even their own, because they don’t even understand anything.

      China is by no means clean or harmless or benevolent, but acting like the West are and China is some evil entity out to get you is like seeing the world only in black and white… when in reality its a thousand of shades of gray.

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