Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) app DeepSeek would not be available to download in South Korea pending a review of its handling of user data, Seoul authorities said yesterday.
DeepSeek’s R1 chatbot stunned investors and industry insiders with its ability to match the functions of its Western rivals at a fraction of the cost, but a number of countries have questioned its storage of user data, which the firm says is collected in “secure servers located in the People’s Republic of China.”
The South Korean Personal Information Protection Commission said that DeepSeek would no longer be available for download until a review of its personal data collection practices was carried out.
Photo: AP
The Chinese AI firm has “acknowledged that considerations for domestic privacy laws were somewhat lacking,” the data protection agency said.
It assessed that bringing the app into line with local privacy laws “would inevitably take a significant amount of time,” it added.
“To prevent further concerns from spreading, the commission recommended that DeepSeek temporarily suspend its service while making the necessary improvements,” it said.
DeepSeek has “accepted” that proposal, it added.
The app was removed from local app stores on Saturday at 6pm and remains unavailable. It can still be used by those who have already downloaded the app.
The commission said it “strongly advised” people to “use the service with caution until the final results are announced.”
That included “refraining from entering personal information into the DeepSeek input field,” it said.
Analyst Youm Heung-youl said that the firm has yet to lay out a privacy policy “specifically tailored” for users in South Korea.
“It has on the other hand disclosed a privacy policy for the EU and certain other countries, stating that it complies with the domestic laws of those nations,” said Youm, a data security professor at Soonchunhyang University.
Asked about the app’s removal, Beijing yesterday said that it asked Chinese firms to run their “overseas operations on the basis of strict abidance by local laws and regulations.”
Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Guo Jiakun (郭嘉昆) also urged “relevant countries” to “avoid taking measures that overstretch the concept of security or politicize trade and technology issues.”
This month, a slew of South Korean government ministries and police said they blocked access to DeepSeek on their computers.
Italy has also launched an investigation into DeepSeek’s R1 model and blocked it from processing Italian users’ data.
Australia has banned DeepSeek from all government devices on the advice of security agencies.
US lawmakers have also proposed a bill to ban DeepSeek from being used on government devices over concerns about user data security.
In response to the bans, the Chinese government has insisted it “has never and will never require enterprises or individuals to illegally collect or store data.”
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