- Germany is asking Apple and Google to block the Deepseek application of the country’s official stores.
- The Berlin Data Protection Commissioner has considered the Chinese Chinese “illegal” Chinese
- Italy prohibited Deepseek from official application stores in January about similar concerns
Deepseek could soon disappear from the official Apple and Google application stores in Germany, since data protection officials accuse Chinese chatbot of alleged privacy violations.
“The transfer of the data of Depseek users to China is illegal,” said Berlin Data Protection Commissioner Meike Kamp, in an official announcement of June 27, 2025. Kamp has asked the great technological giant to consider blocking the application in the country.
Another EU member, Italy, already banned Depseek from Apple App Store and Google Play Store in January 2025 for similar land. The block was applied approximately one week after the launch of the chatgpt rival.
Deepseek violates GDPR rules?
According to the German authorities, the company behind Deepseek AI (Hangzhou Deepseek Artificial Intelligence Co., LTD) violates art. 46 (1) of the GDPR, which governs the need for “appropriate safeguards” when transferring the personal data of EU citizens to a third country.
According to Kamp, Depseek failed to convince German officials that user data is protected when these details are transferred to China, as expected by EU laws.
“The Chinese authorities have a high range of access to personal data within the sphere of influence of Chinese companies. In addition, Deepseek users in China do not have the required rights and the effective legal remedies guaranteed in the European Union,” Kamp added.
These concerns echoed similar GDPR complaints issued after examining the privacy policy of the platform and finding “multiple violations” of European rules.
Did you know?
Currently, the United States is pressing for a new bill, known as the “non -adverse law”, prohibiting all the models of AI built in China, Iran, Russia or the Democratic Popular Republic of Korea to be used in government agencies, including deep.
It is worth noting that Depseek updated its privacy policy on July 4, 2025, and now states that the company does not participate in the “profile”, which was among the problems posed by EU’s privacy gifts. That said, other previously raised concerns can remain, such as non -transparent information about data retention periods.
On May 6, 2025, German data protection officials asked the Chinese firm to “eliminate their applications from German application stores independently, the transfer of illegal data to China cease or meet the legal requirements for the legal transfers of the third country,” reads the announcement. A request that German officials said, Depseek did not comply.
Kamp has decided to exercise the right of Germany under art. 16 of the Digital Services Law (DSA) to inform what he believes is “illegal content” for application store operators.
She said: “Therefore, I have informed Google and Apple, as operators of the largest application platforms, of the violations and I expect a timely consideration of a blockade.”
While Italy was the first to initiate an investigation into Depseek’s privacy and data security practices on January 28, 2025, France, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Portugal are also investigating Deepseek’s policies on possible GDPR violations.
Can you use a VPN if Depseek is blocked?
It is still early to say if the popular Chinese chatbot AI will leave the German market forever.
However, what we know is that Depseek is increasingly under fire worldwide, which means that some of its almost 97 million active users may need to find an alternative way to download, update and use the application.
The use of the best VPN services is generally an easy way to avoid online geostrictions, thanks to its IP dispossession capabilities that allow it to seem to navigate from a completely different country in a short time.
That said, as with the Us Tiktok short duration forest, a VPN is not a single click solution if Depseek is forbidden in official application stores.
That is mainly due to the fact that the use of a VPN does not falsify its location linked to its application stores. This means that “you will find another way to download the application other than the Apple application or Google Play stores,” Eamonn Maguire, head of accounts security in Proton, told me, the provider behind Proton VPN, in January.
However, experts suggest this with caution, since they can remain potential privacy concerns.
