
Italy’s data protection authority Garante has sought clarification from Chinese artificial intelligence model DeepSeek regarding its use of personal data.
The inquiry focuses on the types of personal data collected, the sources, purposes, legal basis, and whether the data is stored in China.
This marks one of the first regulatory actions targeting DeepSeek, which has 20 days to respond.
Expressing concerns, the Garante said: “The data of millions of Italians is at risk.”
This move comes as DeepSeek recently released an open-source version of its reasoning model, DeepSeek-R1, claiming it rivals OpenAI’s models in certain benchmarks.
Concerns about privacy, security, and surveillance have led countries such as the US and Australia to issue warnings about using DeepSeek’s AI model.
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By GlobalDataIn the US, a White House press secretary mentioned that officials are examining the national security implications of the app.
DeepSeek has emerged as a low-cost alternative to US competitors. Its free AI assistant recently surpassed OpenAI’s ChatGPT on Apple‘s App Store in the US, highlighting its growing influence.
Italy’s Garante is known for its active role in regulating AI use, having previously banned Microsoft‘s ChatGPT briefly over privacy concerns.
Meanwhile, Australia Treasurer Jim Chalmers called on Australians to exercise caution when using DeepSeek, reflecting global apprehension about the technology.
Chalmers said: “We would urge Australians to be cautious about this new technology.”
“Obviously we are constantly receiving advice on it.”
Unlike the billions invested by US IT companies in AI, DeepSeek asserts that it has spent only $5.6m on developing its model.
DeepSeek’s R1 model is claimed to be 20 to 50 times less expensive than OpenAI’s models, based on the task.