The looming fear that an app of Chinese origin would receive its first ban has finally happened, but thankfully, DeepSeek is still operational for those living in the U.S. According to the latest report, Italy’s regulator for data privacy protection, Garante, said on Tuesday that it was seeking answers on how the AI startup handled its use of personal data, with the company and its affiliated firms given 20 days to respond. In the aftermath of this action, DeepSeek is no longer available on Apple’s and Google’s app stores in the region, but it is unclear who took this step.
The U.S. is also investigating national security implications of the DeepSeek app, but as of right now, it is the number one free app on Apple’s App Store
Operating on Chinese grounds is sufficient reason for any watchdog to voice concerns over how a company handles privacy, and given how DeepSeek’s popularity has reached the heavens, those worries are warranted. As reported by Reuters, Garante asked the company a series of questions about GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) compliance and gave it slightly less than three weeks to respond, which should be sufficient to accumulate and draft the required information.
Unfortunately, even the U.S. has DeepSeek in its crosshairs, with White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt stating that the National Security Council is reviewing the app’s implications. Now, 9to5Mac reports that DeepSeek has been removed from Apple’s and Google’s app stores in Italy. However, it is not confirmed whether the web portal of DeepSeek can be accessed by users residing in the country, nor is it mentioned if the aforementioned action was taken by DeepSeek or Apple and Google.
The report also mentions that Ireland had similar questions. It should be noted that GDPR applies to all 27 European Union countries, and a lack of a satisfactory response could not only mean that DeepSeek will be banned in Italy and Ireland but also in the rest of the regions that fall under the EU umbrella. Microsoft was recently reported to have started a probe to determine if the R1 AI model was trained on OpenAI’s data outputs. At the same time, the software giant has announced that an NPU-optimized version of DeepSeek will be available for Copilot+ Windows 11 PCs soon.
News Source: Reuters
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