Italy regulator seeks information from DeepSeek on data protection

Italy’s Garante is one of Europe’s most active watchdogs on the use of AI [File]
| Photo Credit: 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 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.