ecently, South Korean officials have restricted DeepSeek, the artificial intelligence startup, from the App Store and Google Play Store download list. The
South Korean government has decided that the Chinese company is not handling all the personal data and information in a safe way.
According to the PIPC, also known as the Personal Information Protection Commission, DeepSeek, will be again available in the App Store and Google Play Store download list after the Chinese company makes the necessary adjustments that comply with the South Korean privacy regulations.
The DeepSeek ban from the South Korean local app stores should not affect the existing users' services in the territory. Even more so, the country's government advises all DeepSeek users not to provide personal data and information for the AI chatbot until the privacy regulations are adjusted.
It’s important to mention that shortly after the official release of DeepSeek in January, the Personal Information Protection Commission contacted the Chinese AI startup in order to find out the methods of collecting and processing personal data. According to the PIPC, they found various issues with the third-party services of the AI chatbot.
As the PIPC states, their own investigation has revealed that DeepSeek has transmitted to ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, various data of South Korean users.
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Also, the agency stated that the AI chatbot DeepSeek has recently assigned a local representative of the company in South Korea. At the time of the official launch, DeepSeek was not familiar with the privacy restrictions of the country, and now the AI startup declared that it works closely with the South Korean authorities and government in order to adjust the AI chatbot guidelines.
However, South Korea is not the only country that has privacy concerns with this AI chatbot due to its Chinese parent country. The Australian government has also given a DeepSeek ban on government devices in order to avoid any security breaches. Along with Australia, the Italian data protection authority advised the AI startup to stop DeepSeek in the country and Taiwan imposed a DeepSeek ban on the government departments.
By
Alice Brasoveanu
•
February 18, 2025 11:05 AM
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