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❓WHAT HAPPENED: German authorities are pressuring Apple and Google to consider removing the Chinese artificial intelligence (AI_ app DeepSeek from their app stores over privacy concerns.
👤WHO WAS INVOLVED: Germany, the European Union (EU), DeepSeek, China, Apple, Google.
📍WHEN & WHERE: Berlin Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information, Meike Kamp, called on the Big Tech corporations to take action this week.
🎯IMPACT: DeepSeek faces removal from another European country after Italy removed the app earlier this year, also due to privacy concerns.
IN FULL
Germany is urging tech giants Apple and Google to block access to the Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) app DeepSeek from app stores over concerns regarding user privacy. Berlin Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information Meike Kamp alleges that DeepSeek transfers users’ personal data to Communist China, violating European Union (EU) data protection regulations.
Kamp claims that DeepSeek did not supply her office with sufficient evidence that the app conforms to EU privacy laws, warning, “Chinese authorities have far-reaching access rights to personal data within the sphere of influence of Chinese companies.”
German authorities now demand that DeepSeek either conform to EU data privacy laws or remove the app from the German market entirely. So far, DeepSeek has refused to take any action, Kamp claims. Other EU member states, like Italy, have made similar demands to DeepSeek and blocked the app from app stores in their countries.
DeepSeek is not the only Chinese app to be accused of violating user privacy. As early as 2021, the Netherlands sued TikTok for violating children’s privacy. In 2023, European regulators fined the company an additional $368 million, again for violating privacy laws.
The United States has long considered banning TikTok due to its links with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), passing legislation mandating that Chinese parent company ByteDance divest in order for it to keep doing business in the country.
President Donald J. Trump has delayed the ban while negotiations to sell the company remain ongoing.
Image by Abdelrahman Ahmed.
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