Watch TV reporting on Chinese artificial intelligence startup Deepseek in a news program at Seoul Railway Station, Seoul on February 17, 2025 (AP/Yonhap)
A government investigation has suspended new downloads of the Deepseek app in South Korea after it was discovered that the AI model had sent personal data to Chinese ordinances.
“We have found out that Deepseek’s user data is leaked to ByteDance,” the Privacy Commission (PIPC) said Monday. “When users visited DeepSeek, their information was also handed over deadlines.”
PIPC admits that Bytedance, Tiktok’s Beijing-based parent company, voluntarily enacted a suspension at the request of regulators and failed to comply with domestic data protection laws during the launch of global services. He said that.
The findings were the result of PIPC’s ongoing investigation into Deepseek’s data security policy after many government agencies and private companies blocked the use of services on office devices. The committee did not specify that the type of data it alleged was handed over to Beitedan, but said the issue would be “cleared” during the investigation.
“We have determined that it will take quite a while to rectify the Deepseek service,” the committee said in its briefing. “To prevent further concerns from spreading, Deepseek has recommended a temporary suspension of service in Korea while making necessary adjustments.”
DeepSeek is currently not available in the IOS App Store or Google Play Store for users set up in Korea, but it is still available for download if you have an overseas app store location. Korean-based users who acquired the app before that date can still use the service. You can also access the services via the web.
“The committee is in the investigation stage of whether Deepseek will cause harm,” the PIPC said. “A full-fledged ban could be debated before its liability is formally determined.”
The regulator hopes to complete the probe faster than it took five months last year to match the data management of OpenAI, Google and Microsoft.
After the DeepSeek investigation is completed, the regulator will release guidelines for AI developers releasing the service in Korea.
The committee is also working to revise the current Personal Data Protection Act to include stricter regulations for foreign companies.
In the meantime, we have requested that individual users be wise to enter their personal information into the DeepSeek app.
The agency will discuss security issues surrounding DeepSeek at the Global Privacy Assembly (GPA) to be held in Seoul in September. The Congress is one of the world’s largest global networks of data protection authorities, counting the US, European Union, Japan and South Korea.
Deepseek appointed a local representative in Korea last week.
Lee Jae-lim ((Email Protection))
