Berlin’s Data Protection Commissioner Meike Kamp informed Apple and Google about the Chinese app DeepSeek, pointing out the illegal transfer of users’ personal data to China. The office stated that DeepSeek did not provide sufficient evidence of compliance with data protection requirements established by EU law.
DeepSeek is created and operated by Hangzhou Deepseek Artificial Intelligence Co Ltd from Beijing, and the app is targeted at users in Germany and available in the German language. The app processes various personal data, including text queries, chat history, uploaded files, location data, and user device information. All this data is transferred to China, where it is stored on the company’s servers. According to the commissioner, DeepSeek violates the “General Data Protection Regulation” as it does not ensure the level of protection required for data transfers outside the EU.
Chinese law grants state authorities broad rights to access personal data, and users do not have guarantees of protection or effective legal remedies as provided in the EU. DeepSeek has not complied with the requirements to cease data transfers to China or adapt to EU norms, thus the app has been officially reported to Apple and Google as illegal content under the Digital Services Act.
The Berlin office coordinated its actions with other regional data protection authorities and the federal agency responsible for enforcing the Digital Services Act in Germany. Now Apple and Google must review the report and decide whether to block DeepSeek in German app stores.
