Germany’s data protection commissioner, Meike Kamp, announced Friday that the country has requested Apple and Google to remove DeepSeek, an AI chatbot developed by Hangzhou DeepSeek Artificial Intelligence Basic Technology Research Co. Ltd., from their mobile app stores due to concerns over data security. Apple and Google must now review the notice and decide whether to block the app in Germany.
Meike Kamp stated that DeepSeek is illegally transferring user data to China, and that there is no evidence that Chinese data protection standards are on par with the European Union, which is governed by the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Under Article 46, when transferring personal data from the EU to a country not governed by the GDPR, a company must establish legally binding safeguards to ensure user data has GDPR-equivalent protections. Since China has not been issued with an adequacy decision by the EU, transferring user data to China is considered unlawful.
According to DeepSeek’s own privacy policy, the AI chatbot collects personal data supplied by users, such as account information and user input, which includes prompts, uploaded files and chat history. Information such as device identifier, IP address and approximate location are automatically collected. The privacy policy also states that users’ personal data is stored and processed in the People’s Republic of China. Deepseek however, provides additional safeguards in its supplementary clause for users in the European Economic Area, Switzerland and the UK.
There has been increasing concern over the security of data supplied to Chinese companies after the adoption of the National Intelligence Law 2017. Article 7 of the law stipulates that all organizations and citizens are obligated to cooperate with the government. Although there is no documented case of the Chinese government compelling any company to hand over user data, this Article 7 gives the government the legal authority to do so.
Previously, in January 2025, Italy’s data protection authority, Garante, ordered DeepSeek to block its chatbot in the country after the company failed to address the regulator’s concerns over its privacy policy.