South Korea’s government has stopped new downloads of DeepSeek AI for the meantime, as a result of rising concerns over the company’s handling of user data.
South Korea’s Personal Information Protection Commission (PIPC) noted that the Chinese AI startup had failed to fully comply with South Korea’s data protection laws.
Read also: Deepseek may be banned in the US
According to PIPC, DeepSeek recently appointed legal representatives in South Korea and admitted to partially neglecting regulatory considerations regarding user privacy.
“The Chinese startup appointed legal representatives last week in South Korea and had acknowledged partially neglecting considerations of the country’s data protection law,” the PIPC said.
The commission added that the app’s service would resume once the company implements improvements in accordance with national privacy laws.
This ban follows similar actions by other governments. Earlier in the month, Australia prohibited the use of DeepSeek on government devices due to security concerns.
Italy’s privacy regulator recently blocked the AI service, citing the company’s failure to address data policy issues.
Taiwan has also warned about potential risks related to cross-border data transmission and information leaks. Also, regulators in Ireland and France have launched investigations into DeepSeek’s data-handling practices. The German government is also monitoring AI applications for potential interference before the Feb. 23 national elections.
Read also: How DeepSeek is shaking industry tables supposedly cast in concrete
DeepSeek gained global adoption for its advanced human-like reasoning capabilities and open-source model. In January, it surpassed OpenAI’s ChatGPT as the most downloaded free app on the Apple store.
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