DeepSeek faces privacy violation complaints in Europe
Consumer protection organizations in Belgium and Italy filed complaints with their data protection authorities alleging that DeepSeek's privacy practices violate EU data protection law, particularly regarding transfers of personal data to China and inadequate transparency about data use for AI training.
What happened
Testachats filed a complaint with Belgium's data protection authority on 29 January 2025 against DeepSeek, alleging that the chatbot's privacy policy reveals multiple violations of data protection rights including inadequate data transfers, profiling, and minor protection.
Testachats stated that DeepSeek transfers personal data of Belgian users to China without appropriate safeguards, and that Chinese law allows state access to data without transparency or proportionality guarantees.
On 28 January 2025, Altroconsumo filed a separate complaint with Italy's data protection authority raising questions about DeepSeek's collection and use of personal data. The Italian authority gave Hangzhou DeepSeek Artificial Intelligence and Beijing DeepSeek Artificial Intelligence 20 days to respond.
Reported impact
Testachats identified multiple violations of EU and national data protection regulations in DeepSeek's privacy policy, including its collection of email addresses and user interactions.
Index analysis
The complaints centre on whether DeepSeek complies with GDPR requirements regarding data transfers, the legal basis for processing, data storage location, and transparency about how user data is used to train its AI system.
Governance controls
Belgium's data protection authority was asked to impose a temporary restriction on DeepSeek's processing of personal data of Belgian users. Italy's data protection authority sought clarification on what personal data is collected, its sources, purposes, legal basis, and storage locations.
Classification
Sources and evidence
This record was researched and written by the Index, based on the following original reporting.