South Korea has temporarily halted new downloads of the Chinese AI chatbot DeepSeek, citing concerns over data privacy violations. The decision, announced by the Personal Information Protection Commission (PIPC), took effect on February 15, 2025, at 6:00 p.m. local time. While the mobile app downloads have been suspended, the web version remains accessible as the company works on meeting regulatory requirements.
South Korea Cracks Down on DeepSeek AI
The PIPC revealed that its analysis of DeepSeek, conducted soon after the chatbot’s launch, uncovered flaws in its communication features and policies regarding the handling of personal information with third-party service providers. The commission emphasized that until these issues are resolved in compliance with South Korea’s Personal Information Protection Act, the app will remain unavailable for new downloads. Existing users have been advised to refrain from inputting personal data into the chatbot’s prompts until further notice.
DeepSeek has acknowledged that it failed to fully consider South Korean data protection laws before launching and has since appointed a local representative to facilitate regulatory compliance. The government aims to use this case as a precedent to strengthen guidance and oversight, ensuring that similar lapses do not occur in the future.
The suspension follows heightened scrutiny from South Korea’s National Intelligence Service (NIS), which previously warned that DeepSeek was excessively collecting user data and potentially using it to train its AI models. Additionally, security experts discovered that the app’s Android and iOS versions transmitted certain user data to its servers in an unencrypted format, raising further concerns.
This is not an isolated case, as global apprehension over DeepSeek’s data practices has been growing. The United States, Italy, Australia, and Taiwan have already imposed restrictions on the AI service for government use, citing security risks. NASA blocked DeepSeek from its systems, and the U.S. Navy warned personnel against using the app due to potential data vulnerabilities.
Amid these mounting concerns, Beijing maintains that it allows international internet companies to operate in China under local laws and insists that it does not compel firms to collect or store data unlawfully. However, as regulatory scrutiny intensifies worldwide, DeepSeek now faces an uphill battle to regain trust and compliance across multiple jurisdictions.
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