- Germany calls on Apple and Google to block the Deepseek app from the country’s official app stores
- Berlin -Databe Protection Commissioner has considered the Chinese AI -Chatbot “illegal” over alleged violations of privacy
- Italy banned Deepseek from official app stores in January over similar concerns
Deepseek could soon disappear from Apple and Google’s official app stores in Germany as data protection officials accuse the Chinese chatbot of alleged violations of privacy.
“Deepseeks transfer of user data to China is illegal,” said Berlin -Data Protection Commissioner Meike match, in an official message dated June 27, 2025. Fight has called on the Big Tech giant to consider blocking the app in the country.
Another EU member, Italy, already banned Deepseek from the Apple App Store and Google Play Store in January 2025 for similar reasons. The block was enforced about a week after the release of the Chatgpt rival.
Does Deepseek GDPR rules?
According to the German authorities, the company behind Deepseek AI (Hangzhou Deepseek Artificial Intelligence Co., Ltd) Art. 46, paragraph.
According to Kamp, Deepseek could not convince German officials that users’ data is protected when these details are transferred to China, as expected by the EU laws.
“Chinese authorities have far-reaching rights to access to personal data within the influence of Chinese companies. In addition, Deepseek users in China do not have the enforceable rights and effective remedies guaranteed in the European Union,” the fight added.
These concerns repeated similar GDPR complaints issued after the investigation of the platform’s privacy policy and found “several violations” of European rules.
Did you know?
The United States is currently pushing for a new bill known as ‘No Adversarial AI Act’, to ban all AI models built in China, Iran, Russia or the Democratic People’s Republic Korea from being used in state agencies – Deepseek included.
It is worth noting that Deepseek updated his privacy policy on July 4, 2025, and now says the company is not participating in ‘profiling’, which was among the questions raised by the EU’s privacy dogs. That said, other concerns previously raised, such as non-transparent information about data storage periods, may remain.
On May 6, 2025, German data protection officials asked the Chinese company to “independently remove its apps from the German app stores, cease the illegal data transfer to China or meet the legal requirements for legal third-country transfers,” the message reads. A request that the German officials said that Deepseek did not comply.
Fight has then decided to exercise Germany’s law according to Art. 16 of the Digital Services ACT (DSA) to report what he thinks is “illegal content” to the App Stores’ operators.
She said, “I have therefore informed Google and Apple, as operators of the largest app platforms, of the violations and expect a timely consideration of a blockage.”
While Italy was the first to launch a study of Deepseeks data protection and security practices on January 28, 2025, France, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Portugal are also investigating Deepseeks policies of potential GDPR offenses.
Can you use a VPN if Deepseek gets blocked?
It is still early to say whether the popular Chinese AI Chatbot leaves the German market for good.
What we know, however, is that Deepseek is increasingly under fire around the world, which means some of its nearly 97 million active users may need to find an alternative way to download, update and use the app.
Using the best VPN services is generally an easy way to bypass online geo constraints thanks to their IP-spoofing capabilities that seem to look like you’re reviewing from a completely different country in a short time.
That said, as with the short-lived US Tiktok ban, a VPN is not a one-click solution if Deepseek is banned in official app stores.
This is mainly because the use of a VPN is not forged your location associated with your app stores. This means you will need to “find another way to download the app other than the Apple app or the Google Play stores,” Eamonn Maguire told account security on the proton – the provider behind Proton VPN – me back in January.
However, experts suggest doing this with caution as there may be potential concerns about privacy.
