The Berlin Commissioner for Data Protection has formally requested Google and Apple to remove the DeepSeek AI application from the application stores due to GDPR violations. The commissioner, Meike Kamp, alleges that DeepSeek’s owner, Hangzhou DeepSeek Artificial Intelligence, based in Beijing, unlawfully collects data from German users and transfers them for processing in servers in China. Bill Toulas Bill Toulas is a tech writer and infosec news reporter with over a decade of experience working on various online publications, covering open-source, Linux, malware, data breach incidents, and hacks. Kamp had requested DeepSeek to voluntarily remove its apps from app stores in Germany this year on May 6 but the company refused to comply. As per the GDPR and Article 46 (1) specifically, any personal data collected from individuals in the European Union must be protected according to the standards upheld by the regulatory act. Hence, the Berlin authorities now made use of Article 16 of the Digital Services Act (DSA), which allows them to report illegal content on platforms to the respective operators, in this case, Apple and Google. DeepSeek is a Chinese AI platform that rose to prominence in January 2025 after the release of the third generation of its chatbot, which came with extensive capabilities. The DeepSeek AI app has 50 million downloads on Google Play, Android’s official app store, and thousands of ratings on Apple’s App Store. BleepingComputer has contacted Google, Apple, and DeepSeek to comment on the situation, and we will update this post when we hear back from them. The two tech giants will now have to review the commissioner’s report and decide whether DeepSeek AI will be removed from their stores or not.
This Cyber News was published on www.bleepingcomputer.com. Publication date: Mon, 30 Jun 2025 18:05:13 +0000