A top regulator in Germany asked Google and Apple on Friday to remove Chinese AI startup DeepSeek from their app stores in their country due to data privacy concerns.
Meike Kamp, Germany’s data protection commissioner, said in a statement that DeepSeek’s transfer of German user data to servers based in China was “unlawful.”
“DeepSeek has not been able to provide my agency with convincing evidence that German users’ data is protected in China to a level equivalent to that in the European Union,” Kamp said in a statement.
“Chinese authorities have far-reaching access rights to personal data within the sphere of influence of Chinese companies,” she added.
Kamp advised the two Big Tech giants to review her request promptly and decide whether to ban the DeepSeek app, though her office did not set a deadline. She noted that DeepSeek had not complied with requests to meet the European Union’s data privacy standards.
Representatives for Apple and Google did not immediately return a request for comment.
DeepSeek exploded onto the scene in January and briefly caused a major tech stock selloff after it released an AI model that it claimed to have trained at a fraction of the cost of rivals like OpenAI’s ChatGPT – and without access to the most advanced computer chips.
As The Post has reported, DeepSeek’s own terms of service disclose that user data is stored “in secure servers located in the People’s Republic of China” – posing the same national security risk that led Congress to crack down on ByteDance-owned TikTok.
The company also says it automatically collects data on personal information such as “device model, operating system, keystroke patterns or rhythms, IP address, and system language.”
In March, the Wall Street Journal reported that the Trump administration was “likely” to ban the DeepSeek app from government devices.
Elsewhere, New York state has already instituted a ban from government devices and networks due to “serious concerns” over data privacy and censorship risks.
In Europe, Italy has blocked DeepSeek from its app stores. The Netherlands nixed it from government devices.
With Post wires
