David Silva Ramalho, managing associate in the criminal, regulatory offences and compliance department, commented to Rádio Observador on the concerns raised by DeepSeek regarding data protection and compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in the European Union.
‘The idea that has been conveyed is that DeepSeek is in China, the data is sent to China and DeepSeek itself, which has already made a comment to the Italian authority, said that it did not consider itself to be covered by the GDPR,’ he explained. According to the lawyer, this situation raises questions about the security guarantees offered to personal data. ‘From the moment the data is sent to China, it is subject to Chinese legislation and being subject to Chinese legislation there are security conditions that are not guaranteed and that in Portugal and the European Union would be,’ he said.
Compared to ChatGPT, David Silva Ramalho emphasised that although it is also linked to a country outside the European Union - the United States - it guarantees that the data of European citizens is stored within the Union and is therefore subject to the GDPR. ‘Of course, if you ask me if there are international political reasons involved, there certainly are, but the concern that has been expressed by the data protection supervisory authorities [...] has been about data security,’ he added.
Data protection authorities in several countries have been raising doubts about DeepSeek's compliance, with some moving towards restrictions. The lawyer warns that, in China, personal data can be used for any purpose permitted by local legislation, while ChatGPT follows different rules in Europe and, in principle, does not transfer data to the United States when processed in the European Union.
Listen to the full interview here.
