Ban impending: German authorities call on Google and Apple to remove Deepseek from their app stores

Deepseek is already banned in Italy. Now, German data protection authorities are going on the offensive against the popular AI app from China. As reported by Der Spiegel, the Berlin Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information has lodged a complaint with Google and Apple and officially requested that the Deepseek app be removed from their stores and rendered inaccessible to German users.

The reason for the request is alleged data protection violations, namely the transfer of user data from Europe to China. The company has not been able to provide sufficient evidence that user data is protected in China as well as in Europe, which, according to the EU's GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) is a basic requirement for the transfer of user data to countries outside the EU. This does not guarantee, however, that other Chinese companies or the Chinese government cannot access European user data.

This is all the more concerning since the chatbot app collects a whole range of potentially sensitive data about its users, including text entries, chat histories, uploaded data, location data and device information. The Chinese authorities could potentially have access to all this data, which the state already has for all domestic companies.

Alternatively, the Berlin data protection authority can impose a fine of up to 4% of the company's global turnover, but as officials have stated, this would be difficult to enforce against a foreign company. On the other hand, this move did not occur without notice; in May, Berlin data protection officials had already set a deadline for the company to cease data transfers to China. The Deepseek developers missed the deadline, so the blocking request has been issued on the basis of the Digital Services Act. Apple and Google must now decide on the blocking very soon. However, the model will continue to be available via web browsers in the future.