HomeSouth Korea Halts DeepSeek App Downloads in Local Stores
On Saturday, South Korean officials put a temporary hold on downloads of the Chinese AI Lab DeepSeek's app from app stores in the country. They're doing this while they figure out how the Chinese company deals with user data. The Personal Information Protection Commission (PIPC) mentioned that the app can be downloaded again once DeepSeek follows Korean privacy laws and makes the required tweaks.
This restriction won't mess with folks who are already using the app or the web service in South Korea. But, the data protection authority is kinda nudging current users to hold off on entering personal info into DeepSeek until they make their final call.
After DeepSeek rolled out its service in South Korea towards the end of January, the PIPC got in touch with the Chinese AI lab to ask about their data collection and processing methods. They found some issues with DeepSeek's third-party services and privacy policies during their review.
The PICC told TechCrunch that their investigation showed DeepSeek had sent South Korean user data over to ByteDance, which is TikTok's parent company.
DeepSeek hasn't gotten back to us yet about this whole thing.
The agency said that DeepSeek recently got a local rep in South Korea and admitted they weren't up to speed on South Korea's privacy laws when they launched. Last Friday, the Chinese company also said they'd work closely with Korean authorities.
Earlier this month, South Korea's Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, the police, and Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power, a state-run company, temporarily blocked DeepSeek on their official devices due to security worries.
South Korea isn't the only one being careful about DeepSeek because of its Chinese roots. Australia has banned DeepSeek on government devices for security reasons. Italy's data protection authority, the Garante, told DeepSeek to block its chatbot in the country, and Taiwan has stopped government departments from using DeepSeek AI.
DeepSeek, based in Hangzhou and founded by Liang Feng in 2023, launched DeepSeek R1, a free, open-source reasoning AI model that's going head-to-head with OpenAI's ChatGPT.
> DeepSeek: The countries and agencies that have banned the AI company’s tech
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Comments (47)
0/500
![CharlesScott]()
Interesting move by South Korea. Data privacy is a hot topic everywhere. Wonder how DeepSeek will respond. 🤔
![FrankRoberts]()
Hat jemand einen konkreten Plan, wie man internationale Datenschutzstandards in der KI-Branche wirklich durchsetzen will? Das scheint hier wieder ein rein politisches Spiel zu sein – 'wir prüfen den Datenschutz' klingt oft nach einer Ausrede für handelsprotektionistische Maßnahmen. Die App funktioniert doch woanders problemlos. 🧐
![ArthurCarter]()
Just found out about the DeepSeek app being blocked in South Korea! It's kinda scary how they're worried about user data privacy. Hope they sort it out soon, I was looking forward to trying it out. 😅 Anyone know of similar apps that are safe to use?
![JohnYoung]()
딥시크를 다운로드하려던 찰나에 한국에서의 금지 소식을 들었어요. 사용자 데이터를 어떻게 다루는지 생각하면 좀 무섭네요. 빨리 해결되길 바랍니다, 그 전까지는 손대지 않을 거예요. 안전이 먼저죠? 🛡️
![GaryGonzalez]()
ディープシークのアプリが韓国でダウンロード停止になったのを知って、ちょっとガッカリ。使い始めたばっかりだったのに！他のアプリを探すか、解決を待つしかないね。ユーザーデータの問題、早く解決してほしいな！🤞
![WillLopez]()
한국이 DeepSeek 앱 다운로드를 중단했다고? 좀 아쉽지만, 데이터 프라이버시에 신중한 것뿐이겠지. 빨리 해결되길 바래, 사용해보고 싶었어! 🤔📱
On Saturday, South Korean officials put a temporary hold on downloads of the Chinese AI Lab DeepSeek's app from app stores in the country. They're doing this while they figure out how the Chinese company deals with user data. The Personal Information Protection Commission (PIPC) mentioned that the app can be downloaded again once DeepSeek follows Korean privacy laws and makes the required tweaks.
This restriction won't mess with folks who are already using the app or the web service in South Korea. But, the data protection authority is kinda nudging current users to hold off on entering personal info into DeepSeek until they make their final call.
After DeepSeek rolled out its service in South Korea towards the end of January, the PIPC got in touch with the Chinese AI lab to ask about their data collection and processing methods. They found some issues with DeepSeek's third-party services and privacy policies during their review.
The PICC told TechCrunch that their investigation showed DeepSeek had sent South Korean user data over to ByteDance, which is TikTok's parent company.
DeepSeek hasn't gotten back to us yet about this whole thing.
The agency said that DeepSeek recently got a local rep in South Korea and admitted they weren't up to speed on South Korea's privacy laws when they launched. Last Friday, the Chinese company also said they'd work closely with Korean authorities.
Earlier this month, South Korea's Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, the police, and Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power, a state-run company, temporarily blocked DeepSeek on their official devices due to security worries.
South Korea isn't the only one being careful about DeepSeek because of its Chinese roots. Australia has banned DeepSeek on government devices for security reasons. Italy's data protection authority, the Garante, told DeepSeek to block its chatbot in the country, and Taiwan has stopped government departments from using DeepSeek AI.
DeepSeek, based in Hangzhou and founded by Liang Feng in 2023, launched DeepSeek R1, a free, open-source reasoning AI model that's going head-to-head with OpenAI's ChatGPT.
> DeepSeek: The countries and agencies that have banned the AI company’s tech
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Interesting move by South Korea. Data privacy is a hot topic everywhere. Wonder how DeepSeek will respond. 🤔
Hat jemand einen konkreten Plan, wie man internationale Datenschutzstandards in der KI-Branche wirklich durchsetzen will? Das scheint hier wieder ein rein politisches Spiel zu sein – 'wir prüfen den Datenschutz' klingt oft nach einer Ausrede für handelsprotektionistische Maßnahmen. Die App funktioniert doch woanders problemlos. 🧐
Just found out about the DeepSeek app being blocked in South Korea! It's kinda scary how they're worried about user data privacy. Hope they sort it out soon, I was looking forward to trying it out. 😅 Anyone know of similar apps that are safe to use?
딥시크를 다운로드하려던 찰나에 한국에서의 금지 소식을 들었어요. 사용자 데이터를 어떻게 다루는지 생각하면 좀 무섭네요. 빨리 해결되길 바랍니다, 그 전까지는 손대지 않을 거예요. 안전이 먼저죠? 🛡️
ディープシークのアプリが韓国でダウンロード停止になったのを知って、ちょっとガッカリ。使い始めたばっかりだったのに！他のアプリを探すか、解決を待つしかないね。ユーザーデータの問題、早く解決してほしいな！🤞
한국이 DeepSeek 앱 다운로드를 중단했다고? 좀 아쉽지만, 데이터 프라이버시에 신중한 것뿐이겠지. 빨리 해결되길 바래, 사용해보고 싶었어! 🤔📱
