Days after its launch, DeepSeek app reached the top of Apple’s App Store surpassing OpenAI’s ChatGPT. The AI assistant uses advanced machine learning models to process information and generate responses. Despite its privacy policies and terms being written entirely in Chinese, millions of users worldwide downloaded the app, drawn to its powerful and free features.
Many critics have raised serious concerns about data privacy and security with notable cases of jailbreaks and database exposure. This has caused the Italian Data Protection Authority, also known as the Garante, to order DeepSeek to stop its operations in Italy. This decision came after the two Chinese companies behind DeepSeek, Hangzhou DeepSeek Artificial Intelligence and Beijing DeepSeek Artificial Intelligence failed to provide satisfactory answers to the local regulators’ questions about its privacy policies.
Experts point out that DeepSeek collects a lot of user data, including device models, operating systems, keystroke patterns, and IP addresses. All of this data is stored on servers based in China, according to the company’s privacy policy. The Garante has demanded an immediate halt to the processing of data from Italian users.
On January 30, 2025, the Garante announced that the information provided by DeepSeek was “completely insufficient.” However, DeepSeek’s companies claim they don’t operate in Italy and that European laws don’t apply to them.
Following Italy’s actions, the Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) also reached out to DeepSeek, asking how the data of Irish citizens is handled. While the DPC confirmed that it has sent a request for information to DeepSeek, they have not received a public response yet. It’s worth noting that DeepSeek’s mobile app has already been removed from both the Google and Apple app stores in Italy.
As more companies and countries race to release the next groundbreaking AI tool, users and regulatory bodies need to pay more attention to the privacy policies and data protection measures put in place by these AI innovators.
Users who adopt AI-assistants in their personal or business operations should always read privacy policies and terms of service, even if it means using a translator. They should be aware of where and how their data is being stored and processed. Regulators should be quick in taking actions to protect their users in their region and globally.
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