On Saturday, South Korean officials decided to temporarily stop people in the country from downloading an app called DeepSeek, which is made by a Chinese AI company. They want to take some time to look into how this company manages user data before allowing it back into app stores.
The Personal Information Protection Commission (PIPC) in South Korea stated that DeepSeek can only be made available for download again once it follows South Korean privacy laws and makes the necessary changes to its app.
While the app is currently restricted from being downloaded, people who already have it on their devices can still use it. However, the PIPC is strongly advising existing users to avoid sharing any personal information with DeepSeek until they make a final decision on the app’s safety and compliance.
After DeepSeek launched its service in South Korea at the end of January, the PIPC reached out to the company to ask how it collects and uses personal data. During their review, they discovered some problems with how DeepSeek handles data, particularly regarding its third-party services and privacy policies.
The PIPC also confirmed to TechCrunch that their investigation revealed DeepSeek had sent data from South Korean users to ByteDance, which is the parent company of TikTok.
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DeepSeek has not yet responded to requests for comments on this situation. The agency noted that DeepSeek recently appointed a local representative in South Korea and admitted that it wasn’t fully aware of South Korean privacy laws when it launched its app. Last Friday, the company announced that it would work closely with South Korean authorities to address these issues.
Earlier this month, South Korea’s Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, along with police and a state-run company called Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power, temporarily restricted access to DeepSeek on official devices due to security concerns.
South Korea isn’t the only country being cautious about DeepSeek because it originates from China. Australia has also banned the use of DeepSeek on government devices due to security worries. In Italy, the data protection authority has ordered DeepSeek to stop its chatbot service in the country, and Taiwan has prohibited government departments from using DeepSeek AI.
DeepSeek, which is based in Hangzhou, China, was founded by Liang Feng in 2023. The company released a free and open-source AI model called DeepSeek R1, which competes with the popular ChatGPT developed by OpenAI.
