South Korea has removed the DeepSeek artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot from app stores due to concerns over privacy and personal data protection. The South Korean Personal Information Protection Commission stated that the app will be available again only after necessary improvements and changes are made to ensure compliance with the country’s data protection laws.
DeepSeek, developed in China, had gained significant popularity in South Korea after its release, quickly reaching over one million weekly users. However, its rapid rise prompted scrutiny from various countries concerned about privacy and national security risks. The app became unavailable on Apple’s App Store and Google Play in South Korea on Saturday evening, following actions by the South Korean government.
Several government agencies had already prohibited employees from downloading the chatbot onto their work devices. Acting President Choi Sang-mok called the app’s rapid rise a “shock” that could affect multiple sectors of the country’s industries beyond the AI space.
While new downloads are blocked, users who had already downloaded the app are still able to access it, and it can be used via the DeepSeek website.
Concerns about DeepSeek have spread beyond South Korea. Other countries, including Taiwan, Australia, and Italy, have also imposed restrictions on the app, citing national security risks. Australia’s government emphasized that the ban was due to security concerns, not the app’s origin, while Italy’s data protection authority raised questions about DeepSeek’s privacy practices. French and Irish regulators have also sought clarification on how the app handles personal data, particularly in relation to whether the information is stored on servers in China.
In the United States, lawmakers have proposed legislation to prohibit DeepSeek from being used on federal devices, citing concerns about surveillance. Some state governments, including Texas, Virginia, and New York, have already introduced similar measures for state employees.
DeepSeek’s large language model, which offers similar reasoning capabilities to other AI systems such as OpenAI’s GPT models, has attracted attention for its cost-effectiveness in comparison to competitors. This has raised questions about global AI infrastructure investments and the competitive dynamics in the field.
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#SouthKorea #China #AI #DeepSeek #PrivacyConcerns #TechRegulation #DataSecurity
