Italian regulator asks DeepSeek for information about data collection
Italy’s data privacy regulator announced Tuesday that it has asked the Chinese artificial intelligence company DeepSeek to provide information about its data practices.
DeepSeek has been ordered to turn over information disclosing what personal data it collects, where it is sourced from, whether the data is stored on servers in China, what legal basis it has for collecting the data and for what purpose it collects it, according to the announcement from Garante, the regulator.
Garante also wants to know whether the company uses web scraping to gather personal data and how it notifies users about its processing of their data.
The regulator ordered DeepSeek to answer its inquiry within 20 days.
Garante has been aggressive in regulating AI, and in 2023 barred its citizens from using ChatGPT due to data privacy concerns. It has since reversed that ban.
After the release of its powerful open-source model caused shockwaves in the markets and a flood of interest in the app, DeepSeek said Monday it would restrict signups due to malicious activity causing its performance to decline.
Suzanne Smalley
is a reporter covering privacy, disinformation and cybersecurity policy for The Record. She was previously a cybersecurity reporter at CyberScoop and Reuters. Earlier in her career Suzanne covered the Boston Police Department for the Boston Globe and two presidential campaign cycles for Newsweek. She lives in Washington with her husband and three children.