Chinese AI app DeepSeek will not be available for download in South Korea pending a review of its handling of user data, Seoul authorities said Monday. DeepSeek’s R1 chatbot impressed investors and industry insiders with its ability to match the functions of its Western counterparts at a fraction of the cost.
However, the app has faced scrutiny from several countries over the storage of user data, which the company claims is collected on “secure servers located in the People’s Republic of China.”
On Monday, Seoul’s Personal Information Protection Commission announced that DeepSeek would no longer be available for download until its personal data collection practices are reviewed. The Chinese AI firm acknowledged that it had not fully considered domestic privacy laws and noted that aligning the app with South Korea’s privacy regulations would take significant time.
In response, the commission recommended that DeepSeek temporarily suspend its service while improvements are made. DeepSeek has accepted the proposal.
The app was removed from local app stores on Saturday at 6:00 pm (0900 GMT) and remains unavailable for new downloads. However, users who had already downloaded the app can still access it. Seoul’s data protection agency urged users to “use the service with caution” until the final results of the review are announced, specifically advising them to avoid entering personal information into the app.
Analyst Youm Heung-youl, a data security professor at Soonchunhyang University, pointed out that DeepSeek has not provided a privacy policy specifically tailored for South Korean users, though it has disclosed policies for the EU and other regions, claiming compliance with their domestic laws. This month, several South Korean government ministries and police agencies blocked access to DeepSeek on their computers.
Other countries have also raised concerns about DeepSeek. Italy has launched an investigation into its R1 model and blocked it from processing Italian users’ data. Australia has banned DeepSeek from all government devices following advice from security agencies, and U.S. lawmakers have proposed a bill to ban its use on government devices due to concerns over user data security.
In response to these bans, the Chinese government has expressed opposition to the “politicisation of economic, trade, and technological issues” and asserted that it “has never and will never require enterprises or individuals to illegally collect or store data.”
