Commissioner said the company had failed to demonstrate that German users' data stored in China was adequately safeguarded.
German authorities have asked Google and Apple to consider removing Chinese AI app DeepSeek from their app stores over data protection concerns.
The country's data protection commissioner, Ulrich Kamp, said the company had failed to demonstrate that German users' data stored in China was adequately safeguarded, according to Reuters.
Despite requests to meet EU data transfer standards or withdraw voluntarily, DeepSeek did not comply, prompting Kamp to escalate the matter to the tech giants.
DeepSeek, which gained attention earlier this year with claims of developing a low-cost AI rival to ChatGPT, has faced growing scrutiny over its data security practices. Italy has already blocked the app, the Netherlands has banned it on government devices, and Belgium has advised officials not to use it. In Spain, a consumer group has urged an official investigation, while the UK government said use of the app remains a personal decision but pledged to act if national security threats emerge.
Official Responses
Google has confirmed receipt of the German request and is reviewing it, while Apple has not yet commented. DeepSeek did not respond to media enquiries.
Meanwhile, in the U.S., lawmakers are preparing legislation to ban federal agencies from using any AI models developed in China, reflecting rising concerns over data privacy and national security risks linked to Chinese tech platforms.
GenAI Tools
Alastair Paterson, CEO and co-founder of AI data protection company Harmonic Security, said its research found that 7.95 percent of employees in the average enterprise used at least one Chinese GenAI tool.
“It's not just DeepSeek - employees are using other tools like Manus, Kimi Moonshot, Manus, Baidu Chat, and Qwen,” he said. “There are good reasons why people will want to use Chinese apps because the country (like the US) is becoming an AI powerhouse and some are even ahead of OpenAI.
“There is a huge ‘BUT’ however – companies should presume that any information their employees choose to put in the apps will become property of the Chinese Communist Party. Any ban will take time and might even then be ineffective – there are always ways around it.”
Paterson said more immediately, organisations need to educate employees that no sensitive information at all should be put into China-based apps, and take technology steps to screen and block any confidential data going into them.
Written by
Dan Raywood is a B2B journalist with 25 years of experience, including covering cybersecurity for the past 17 years. He has extensively covered topics from Advanced Persistent Threats and nation-state hackers to major data breaches and regulatory changes.
He has spoken at events including 44CON, Infosecurity Europe, RANT Forum, BSides Scotland, Steelcon and the National Cyber Security Show, and served as editor of SC Media UK, Infosecurity Magazine and IT Security Guru. He was also an analyst with 451 Research and a product marketing lead at Tenable.
