Liechtenstein: Data Protection Office issued guidance on the use of the DeepSeek AI platform

On 13 February 2025, the Data Protection Office of Liechtenstein issued guidance on the use of the DeepSeek AI platform. The Office noted that the use of DeepSeek R1 AI was not specifically designed for European users and is associated with considerable data protection risks. In particular, the Office stated that the use of DeepSeek involves data collection and processing without specified protection guarantees, allowing user-entered prompts to be recorded, transferred, stored, or analyzed without defined limitations. Furthermore, the lack of a legal representative from the platform based in the EU made it difficult for citizens to seek redress or exercise data access, rectification, and erasure rights set out in the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The Office recommended the avoidance of the installation of the DeepSeek template and configuration files in any IT environment in order to limit exposure to data leakage or data misuse, and advised users to refrain from entering personal or confidential data. It also advised users to avoid entering personal or confidential data, to raise awareness of the risks of using the platform, and to instead use AI tools in compliance with the European regulatory framework, including the GDPR and EU AI Act.