Germany's data protection authorities call for DeepSeek ban

Germany’s data protection authorities have called on Apple and Google to block the Chinese chatbot DeepSeek from their app stores, citing violations of the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). According to Berlin's Data Protection Commissioner Meike Kamp, the app unlawfully transfers user data to China and lacks adequate safeguards as required by Article 46(1) of the GDPR. The company behind the app, Hangzhou DeepSeek Artificial Intelligence Co., Ltd, failed to address official demands made in May 2025 to cease the illegal data transfer or meet legal standards. Similar concerns led Italy to ban DeepSeek in January 2025, and several other EU countries—including France, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and Portugal—have ongoing investigations into the app’s data practices. Despite updating its privacy policy in July 2025 to mitigate concerns such as user profiling, unresolved issues like data retention transparency persist. With over 97 million users globally, DeepSeek may soon be inaccessible in Germany through official channels, although VPN use could provide circumvention options. However, experts warn that this method has limitations and should be approached with caution due to continued privacy risks.