South Korean officers on Saturday quickly restricted Chinese language AI Lab DeepSeek’s app from being downloaded from app shops within the nation pending an evaluation of how the Chinese language firm handles person information.
The Private Info Safety Fee (PIPC) stated the Chinese language app can be accessible to be downloaded as soon as it complies with Korean privateness legal guidelines and makes the required adjustments.
The restrictions won’t have an effect on utilization of the prevailing app and internet service within the nation. Nonetheless, the info safety authority stated it “strongly advises” present customers to keep away from getting into private data into DeepSeek till its closing determination is made.
Following the discharge of the DeepSeek service in South Korea in late January, the PIPC stated it reached out to the Chinese language AI lab to inquire the way it collects and processes private information, and in its analysis, discovered points with DeepSeek’s third-party service and privateness insurance policies.
The PICC confirmed to Trendster that its investigation discovered DeepSeek had transferred information of South Korean customers to ByteDance, the guardian firm of TikTok.
DeepSeek didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark.
The company stated DeepSeek just lately appointed an area consultant in South Korea and acknowledged that it was not acquainted with South Korea’s privateness legal guidelines when it launched its service. The Chinese language firm additionally stated final Friday that it could collaborate carefully with Korean authorities.
Earlier this month, South Korea’s Ministry of Commerce, Business and Power, police, and a state-run firm, Korea Hydro & Nuclear Energy, quickly blocked entry to the Chinese language AI startup on official gadgets citing safety issues.
South Korea just isn’t the one nation being cautious with DeepSeek given its Chinese language origins. Australia has prohibited the usage of DeepSeek on authorities gadgets out of safety issues. The Garante, Italy’s information safety authority, has instructed DeepSeek to dam its chatbot within the nation, whereas Taiwan has banned authorities departments from utilizing DeepSeek AI.
Hangzhou city-based DeepSeek was based by Liang Feng in 2023, and it launched DeepSeek R1, a free, open-source reasoning AI mannequin that competes with OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
