- Germany calls Apple and Google to block the Deepseek application of the country’s official application stores
- The Berlin data protection commissioner judged that the illegal “Chinese” “chatbot of the private violations of private life
- Italy prohibited the depth of official application stores in January for similar concerns
Deepseek could soon disappear from the Apple and Google official application stores in Germany while data protection officials accuse the Chinese chatbot of alleged privacy.
“User data transfer by Deepseek in China is illegal,” said Berlin data protection commissioner Meike Kamp in an official announcement dated June 27, 2025. Kamp called the Grand Giant of Technology to consider blocking application in the country.
Another member of the EU, Italy, has already prohibited Deepseek from the Apple App Store and Google Play Store in January 2025 on similar reasons. The block was applied about a week after the chatgpt rival out.
Deepseek violates the RGPD rules?
According to the German authorities, the company behind Deepseek Ai (Hangzhou Deepseek Artificial Intelligence Co., LTD) violates art. 46 (1) of the GDPR, which governs the need for “appropriate guarantees” during the transfer of personal data from EU citizens to a third country.
According to Kamp, Deepseek has not convinced German officials that user data is protected when these details are transferred to China, as provided by EU laws.
“Chinese authorities have large -scale rights access to personal data in the field of influence of Chinese companies.
These concerns have echoed the similar complaints of the RGPD published after examining the privacy policy of the platform and noted “multiple violations” of European rules.
Did you know?
The United States is currently pressure for a new bill, known as the Act of the opponent ”, to prohibit all the models of AI built in China, Iran, Russia or the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to be used in government agencies – Deepseek included.
It should be noted that Deepseek updated its privacy policy on July 4, 2025 and now declares that the company does not engage in “profiling”, which was part of the questions raised by the private life dogs of the EU. That said, other concerns previously raised, such as non -transparent information over data retention periods, may remain.
On May 6, 2025, German data protection officials asked the Chinese company to “independently delete its applications from the German application stores, to stop the transfer of illegal data to China or to fulfill the legal requirements for legal transfers of the third country,” said the announcement. A request that said German officials, Deepseek failed to comply.
Kamp then decided to exercise the right of Germany under art. 16 of the Digital Services Act (DSA) to point out what he believes to be “illegal content” to application store operators.
She said: “So I informed Google and Apple, as operators of the largest application platforms, violations and expects me to a timely blockage consideration.”
While Italy was the first to launch an investigation into Deepseek data and data security practices on January 28, 2025, France, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Portugal also investigates Deepseek policies on the potential RGPD violations.
Can you use a VPN if Deepseek is blocked?
It is still early to say if the popular Chinese AI chatbot will leave the German market.
What we know, however, is that Deepseek is more and more under fire in the world, which means that some of its almost 97 million active users may need to find another way to download, update and use the application.
The use of the best VPN services is generally an easy way to get around online geo-restaurants, thanks to their IP use capacities which allow you to travel a completely different country in no time.
That said, as with the short -term tiktok ban, a VPN is not a solution with a click if Deepseek is banned in official application stores.
It is mainly because the use of a VPN does not reach your location linked to your application stores. This means that you will have to “find another way to download the application other than the Apple application or Google Play stores”, told me Eamonn Maguire in January.
However, experts suggest doing this with caution because potential confidentiality problems may remain.
