(Bloomberg) — Apple Inc. and Google’s Android have been warned by a top German privacy regulator that the Chinese AI service DeepSeek, available on their app stores, constitutes illegal content because it exposes users’ data to Chinese authorities.
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The formal notification comes after DeepSeek ignored a May request to either pull its app from app stores in Germany or put in place safeguards when collecting local users’ data and transmitting it to China, Berlin data protection commissioner Meike Kamp said in a statement on Friday.
“Chinese authorities have far-reaching rights to access personal data,” Kamp said. “DeepSeek users don’t have enforceable rights and effective legal remedies available to them in China, like they’re guaranteed in the European Union.”
Hangzhou-based DeepSeek shocked the global tech industry in January with its R1 large language model, which the Chinese startup claimed could rival much larger US systems at a fraction of the cost.
After the Chinese app ignored requests to comply, the Berlin agency invoked a provision of the EU’s Digital Services Act, which puts the onus on tech platforms like Apple and Google to take down illegal content on their platforms.
They both must now swiftly review the notice and decide on how to comply, according to Kamp. While the regulator could have also fined DeepSeek, Kamp decided against it, because she wouldn’t be able to enforce the penalty in China.
Apple declined to comment. DeepSeek and Google didn’t immediately reply to emails seeking comments.
The German move follows a similar step by Italy’s privacy regulator in January. In the US, authorities have concluded that DeepSeek gave support to the Chinese military and intelligence efforts and is expected to keep doing so, according to an American official.
Lawmakers in Washington are preparing bipartisan legislation that would ban federal government agencies from using DeepSeek and other AI tools from foreign adversaries.
–With assistance from Gian Volpicelli.
(Updates with US government views on DeepSeek in final two paragraphs.)
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