DeepSeek Faces Ban From Apple, Google App Stores In Germany

Germany's data protection commissioner has urged Apple and Google to remove Chinese AI startup DeepSeek from their app stores due to concerns about data protection. Reuters reports: Commissioner Meike Kamp said in a statement on Friday that she had made the request because DeepSeek illegally transfers users' personal data to China. The two U.S. tech giants must now review the request promptly and decide whether to block the app in Germany, she added, though her office has not set a precise timeframe. According to its own privacy policy, DeepSeek stores numerous pieces of personal data, such as requests to its AI program or uploaded files, on computers in China.

"DeepSeek has not been able to provide my agency with convincing evidence that German users' data is protected in China to a level equivalent to that in the European Union," [Commissioner Meike Kamp] said. "Chinese authorities have far-reaching access rights to personal data within the sphere of influence of Chinese companies," she added. The commissioner said she took the decision after asking DeepSeek in May to meet the requirements for non-EU data transfers or else voluntarily withdraw its app. DeepSeek did not comply with this request, she added.

Yes, but they are all like that...

[sinij]

Schneier has an article on what LLMs collect [schneier.com]. It is nothing short of death of privacy of any kind.

Re:

[ffkom]

And the fact that "as a service"-LLMs all harvest your data like this tells us that it is a stupid, politically motivated move to just ban one of them. And DeepSeek is one of the few that enable people to run their own, disconnected LLM instance locally - much unlike the other data harvesters.

Re:

[allo]

What do you expect? OpenAI, Anthropic and probably also DeepSeek want to be the next Meta. Use local models.

Re:

[sinij]

Use local models response to AI is what back in 2000s host you own email server to Google reading your email. Most people won't and over time it will become increasingly difficult to do so.

Re:

[allo]

Don't you think it becomes easier? Llamafile exists for quite some time, I've heard that there is already a localllm client on Steam, More and more programs just integrate it. Firefox 140 just got a tiny model included for summarizing websites. And their web-assembly llama engine could be used by every webapp out there as well. And I've seen demos before Mozilla used it.

For some reason I don't quite understand, there is a nice open weight (not open source) ecosystem for models. And not open source may match

Re:

[sinij]

Ultimately, it is accessibility of better alternative. Here is example - say there exists much better roofing material that what you have right now and material costs are comparable. However, no roofing company in your town would install it. So a typical person, that has no ability to redo their roof themselves, do not have access to this roofing material. (This is based on a true story, I had to fight to get high wind resistant shingles installed instead of regular ones).

What, LLMs have to respect laws now?

[gweihir]

Such a surprise.

People

[registrations_suck]

People can always choose to not use such apps.

Re:

[noshellswill]

People should fuck oppressor nations like China in the economic azzwhole. Removing  digital degrees-of-freedom is an obviously good starting point.

Re: People

[commodore73]

What about oppressor nations like UST?

Re:

[registrations_suck]

What about oppressor nation-like entities like the EU?

Violation of civil liberties

[LostMyBeaver]

I smoke a pack a day. I haven't looked at a cigarette pack in years because the EU passed laws requiring grotesque images to be printed on the packs, but my guess is that there is a warning somewhere on the pack telling me that if I choose to smoke, it will hurt me.

I believe banning Deepseek from the store is contradiction and a violation of my liberties. I don't believe the government has the right to ban me from harming myself in their eyes.

First, I seriously doubt Meike Kamp is informed enough to make de

Re:

[pauljlucas]

I don't believe the government has the right to ban me from harming myself in their eyes.

If you signed a contract stating that you agreed either to forgo any treatments for health issues arising from your choice to smoke or agreed to pay for all such treatments out of your own pocket, then fine. But, and especially if you live in a country with socialized medicine, then everyone else is paying for your treatment. So to minimize everyone's expenses for your completely avoidable health issues, the governm

Hypocrites..

[SuperDre]

Why not also ask it of chatgpt, facebook, and many more american based apps, as they do exactly the same, send userdata to the US without the same protection as in the EU.