The Chinese artificial intelligence application DeepSeek He had blocked access at Apple and Google app stores in Italy on Wednesday (29), one day after the country’s data protection authority collecting company information about personal data use.
Ireland’s Data Protection Commission said it also requested Deepseek information on data processing over Irish users.
Last week, Deepseek launched a free AI assistant that, according to the company, uses fewer data and costs a breakdown of the price charged for current services. On Monday, the assistant had surpassed the American rival chatgpt in download at Apple’s application store, causing panic among investors in technology companies.
“The news of the application’s withdrawal was only a few hours ago, I can’t tell whether it is due to us or not,” said the head of the Italian data regulatory body, Pasquale Stanzione, according to the Ansa news agency.
“Our office will start a thorough investigation to verify that GDPR rules are being respected,” added Stanzione, according to Ansa, referring to the European Union data protection regulation.
The Italian regulatory agency, known as Guarantee, said on Tuesday that he wanted to know which personal data are collected, from which sources, for what purposes, what is legal base and whether they are stored in China. The authority gave DeepSek and its affiliated companies 20 days to respond.
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A warning displayed to Italian customers on Apple’s App Store said the Deepseek “is currently not available in the country or in the area you are in.” A message on the Google app platform said the download “is not supported” in Italy.
