Approximately a week after its launch, Italy became the first country to formally request an investigation on how Depseek chatbot manages the personal data of users.
“Possible risk to the data of millions of people in Italy,” wrote the Italian data dwelling authority, known as guarantor, on Tuesday, January 28, 2025, in an official announcement.
Developed by a little -known China startup, Depseek has seen almost 3 million downloads since its launch, reaching an estimated total user base of between 5 and 6 million users worldwide, according to SEO.AI data. However, experts inside and outside Europe have warned about possible implications of privacy.
The companies that provide the Chinese rival of Chatgpt, the artificial intelligence of Hangzhou Deepseek and the artificial intelligence of Beijing Deepseek, now have 20 days to respond to the complaint of Italy.
Against GDPR rules
The guarantor complaint follows a report presented by Euroconsumers, a coalition of five national consumption organizations that also include its Italian member, altrocunumo.
After observing how the Deepseek application and CAT services collect and handle user data according to their own privacy policy, Euroconusmers found “multiple violations of European and national data protection regulations,” says the report.
These include European data transfers to China without safeguards, as required by GDPR rules, unclear information about how user data for the online profile is used, non -transparent information on data retention periods and lack of details on the verification of age or the management of minors of minors, among other things.
The guarantor is also asking companies behind Deepseek AI to provide the necessary clarifications for services to legally operate in the country.
Italy’s data regulator seeks more information about the type of data used to train the artificial intelligence system. If personal data is collected through web scraping activities, Deepseek would also need to clarify “how registered users and those who are not registered in the service have been or are informed about the processing of their data,” the guarantor wrote.
“Technological efficiency, because it is important, cannot prevail over the fundamental rights of people. It is essential to ensure that the development of AI occurs in full compliance with European regulation, which represents a pillar in the protection of values And fundamental rights, “Marco Scialdone, head of Litigation of Euroconsumers, told Eurofocus, commenting on the complaint.
This is not the first time that Italy mentions the privacy violations of the chatbots of AI.
In April 2023, the guarantor temporarily prohibited the use of chatgpt throughout the country, since Mammoth was considered responsible for collecting and storing Italian data incorrectly And, consequently, GDPR rape rules. At that time, Chatgpt’s prohibition caused an increase in VPN downloads while the Italians were looking for ways to retain access to the popular chatbot of AI.
It is too early to know if Depseek will share the same destination, but, nevertheless, we recommend that you approach the novelty of AI with caution if your online privacy cares.
