The Italian data protection authority (Garante) announced on Thursday (January 30) that it has blocked the Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) model DeepSeek due to a lack of transparency in its use of personal data.
DeepSeek was no longer available for download on Apple and Google app stores in Italy on Wednesday. A day prior to this action, Garante had requested detailed information from DeepSeek regarding the use of personal data.
According to reports from Reuters, Garante was particularly concerned about the personal data collected by DeepSeek, the sources of the data, its purposes, legal basis, and whether this data is stored within China’s borders.
In an official statement on its website, Garante stated that the goal of this action is to protect the data security of Italian users. Garante mentioned that the information provided by the Chinese company offering chatbot services for DeepSeek was “entirely insufficient,” leading to the immediate decision to block the application and launch an investigation.
As of now, DeepSeek has not responded to Reuters’ request for comments.
Last week, DeepSeek introduced a free AI assistant that quickly gained popularity due to its low operating costs. By Monday of this week, the application had surpassed its American competitor ChatGPT in downloads on the Apple store, causing a stir in the market and leading to a sell-off of tech stocks.
The sudden rise of DeepSeek has caught the attention of US national security agencies, with data regulatory authorities in countries such as Italy, Germany, Australia, and Ireland launching investigations.
UK Technology Minister Peter Kyle stated during an interview in Brussels on Wednesday (January 29), “We are closely examining the scale and impact of DeepSeek and ensuring its compliance with relevant regulations.” Currently, British government officials are evaluating the potential impact of the DeepSeek application on national security.
According to a report by the Financial Times on Wednesday, the American company OpenAI claimed to have found evidence indicating that DeepSeek used OpenAI’s proprietary models to train its own models. This revelation has raised concerns about potential intellectual property infringement involving DeepSeek.
On the same day, the DeepSeek application was blocked in the Italian Apple and Google app stores, making it unavailable for download. The Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) also stated that it has requested detailed information from DeepSeek on how it handles the data of Irish users.