Korea blocks Deepseek downloads from local app stores

Korean officials on Saturday Temporarily restricted The Chinese AI Lab Deepseek app is being downloaded from the domestic app store, waiting for an evaluation of how Chinese companies handle user data.

The Privacy Policy Committee (PIPC) said Chinese apps are compliant with South Korea’s privacy laws and can be downloaded if you make the necessary changes.

The restrictions do not affect the use of existing apps and web services within the country. However, the data protection agency said it is “strongly advising” current users not to enter personal information into DeepSeek until a final decision is made.

Following the release of Deepseek services in Korea in late January, PIPC reached out to AI labs in China to ask how they collect and process personal data, and in its assessment, it recognised Deepseek’s third-party services and privacy. He said he discovered the problem. policy.

PICC confirmed to TechCrunch that its investigation confirmed that DeepSeek had transferred data from Korean users to Bytedance, the parent company of Tiktok.

Deepseek did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The agency said Deepseek recently appointed a local representative in South Korea and admitted that he was not familiar with South Korea’s privacy laws when it launched its service. Chinese companies also said last Friday they would work closely with South Korean authorities.

Early this monthSouth Korea’s Ministry of Trade, Industry, Energy, police and state-owned companies, South Korea Hydropower and Nuclear, have temporarily blocked access to official devices China’s AI startups citing security concerns.

Korea is not the only country that has been cautious about Deepshek given its Chinese origins. Australia has Prohibited Using DeepSeek on government equipment due to security concerns. Galante, Italian Data Protection Bureauinstructed Deepseek to block country chatbots, but Taiwan has banned the government department from using Deepseek AI.

Hangzhou-based Deepseek was founded and released in 2023 by Liang Feng Deepseek R1A free open source inference AI model that competes with Openai’s ChatGpt.