Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on January 28, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 27, 2026
Add as preferred source on Google
Italy's data authority questions DeepSeek on its data practices, focusing on collection and storage, marking a significant regulatory move.
ROME (Reuters) -Italy's data protection authority said on Tuesday it was seeking answers from Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) model DeepSeek on its use of personal data.
The Italian regulator, which is also known as the Garante, said it wanted to know what personal data is collected, from which sources, for what purposes, on what legal basis, and whether it is stored in China.
DeepSeek and its affiliated companies have 20 days to answer, the Garante said in a statement, in one of the first regulatory moves targeting the Chinese startup.
In the U.S., a White House press secretary said officials were looking at the national security implications of the app.
DeepSeek, which presents itself as a low-cost alternative to U.S. rivals, sparked a tech stock selloff on Monday as its free AI assistant overtook OpenAI's ChatGPT on Apple's <AAPL.O> App Store in the United States.
Italy's Garante is one of Europe's most active watchdogs on the use of AI. In 2023 it briefly banned the use of Microsoft-backed ChatGPT in the country over suspected breaches of EU privacy rules.
(Reporting by Elvira Pollina Alvise Armellini, editing by Gavin Jones and Gareth Jones)
Italy's data protection authority, known as the Garante, is seeking information from DeepSeek about its use of personal data, including what data is collected and the legal basis for its use.
DeepSeek and its affiliated companies have 20 days to respond to the Garante's request for information.
In 2023, Italy's Garante briefly banned the use of Microsoft-backed ChatGPT in the country over suspected breaches of EU privacy rules.
DeepSeek's free AI assistant overtook OpenAI's ChatGPT on Apple's App Store, leading to a selloff in tech stocks.
Officials in the U.S. are examining the national security implications of DeepSeek, highlighting concerns about foreign AI applications.
Explore more articles in the Headlines category
