DeepSeek may face further regulatory actions

DeepSeek may face more actions from national regulators in the future, Europe's privacy watchdog said on Tuesday, underscoring the bloc's concerns about the rising popularity of the cheap Chinese artificial intelligence startup.

National privacy regulators discussed DeepSeek at a monthly meeting on Tuesday, after Italy blocked the chatbot over lack of information on its use of personal data and as enforcers in France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg and other countries questioned DeepSeek on its data collection practices.

"Several DPAs (data protection authorities) have already started actions vis-a-vis DeepSeek and there may be further actions in the future," a spokesperson for the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) said in an email after the meeting.

The concerns prompted the EDPB to broaden the scope of a taskforce created in April 2023 to foster cooperation and exchange information on enforcement related to AI.

The taskforce had originally focused only on Microsoft-backed OpenAI's ChatGPT.

"In addition, the EDPB members underlined the need to coordinate DPAs' actions regarding urgent sensitive matters and for that purpose will set up a quick response team," the spokesperson said.

Europe has been in the forefront of protecting its citizens' privacy rights while its General Data Protection Regulation, which came into effect in 2018, is the toughest privacy law in the world.