Europa Posted on 2025-01-31 13:00:00

 DeepSeek is blocked by Italian authorities while other member states open investigations!

From Edel Strazimiri

 DeepSeek is blocked by Italian authorities while other member states open

The Italian Data Protection Authority, Garante, has stopped the processing of Italians' personal data by DeepSeek because the agency is not satisfied with the Chinese AI model's claims that it does not fall under the remit of EU law.

"Contrary to the Authority's findings, the companies declared that they do not operate in Italy and that European regulations do not apply to them," Garante wrote in a press release.

On Tuesday, Garante launched an investigation into Hangzhou DeepSeek Artificial Intelligence and Beijing DeepSeek Artificial Intelligence, giving the companies 20 days to provide details on how their AI chatbots comply with GDPR, the European data protection law, looking at what data is collected, for what purpose, where it is being stored and whether it was used to train the AI ​​model.

This block means that DeepSeek will not be available in app stores in Italy. However, the ban can be circumvented online through the use of virtual private networks.

In April 2023, ChatGPT, OpenAI's US chatbot, was also banned by Garante for a month for privacy violations. It resulted in a fine of 15 million euros.

Since DeepSeek's parent companies are not legally established in any member state, data protection authorities in the other 26 members can receive complaints and launch an investigation into them.

So far, only the Belgian and Irish data protection authorities have opened an investigation seeking information from DeepSeek on the processing and storage of their citizens' data, although more countries may follow suit.

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