The Berlin Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information has notified Apple and Google that DeepSeek, the AI chatbot app, represents illegal content under the European data protection law (GDPR). The reason is simple – the application is accused of unlawful transfers of personal data to China.
A key challenge Chinese apps face in Europe is managing data collected from EU citizens. Other companies, including DeepSeek, have an obligation to keep the information safe when transferred outside of Europe, and certain conditions must be met. According to the German authorities, these conditions are not met by China.
The notification has been issued under Article 16 of the Digital Services Act (DSA) and compels Google and Apple to review the complaint and consider removing the app from their platforms in Germany.
What is DeepSeek?
DeepSeek is developed by Beijing-based Hangzhou DeepSeek Artificial Intelligence Co, Ltd, and it’s basically a multifunctional AI chatbot. It shot to fame after the company building the chatbot claimed to have used very few resources to train the language models, at least in comparison with its Western counterparts.
Although it has no official presence in the EU, the app is widely accessible to German users through the Google Play Store and Apple App Store, offering a German-language description and support.
This is why the Berlin Commissioner says that DeepSeek falls under the jurisdiction of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
Serious data privacy concerns
According to the German Commissioner, DeepSeek collects and processes numerous types of user data, including:
- All text entries and chat history
- Uploaded files
- Geolocation information
- Details on devices and networks used
Allegedly, all this data is transferred to and stored on servers in China, outside of the GDPR’s purview.
“The transfer of user data by DeepSeek to China is unlawful,” said Meike Kamp, Berlin Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information. “DeepSeek has not been able to provide my office with convincing evidence that data of German users is protected in China at a level equivalent to that of the European Union.”
The German regulators earlier contacted the company on 6 May 2025, asking it to voluntarily withdraw the app from German app stores, cease the data transfers, or at least implement legal safeguards for third-country data transfers.
DeepSeek failed to act on the requests, leading to the much more drastic measures of notifying Apple and Google.
Apple and Google have to respond to the notification and determine if they will restrict DeepSeek’s availability in Germany, which might trigger similar actions from other EU countries for the same product and other Chinese-originating services and apps.