South Korean authorities said Monday that DeepSeek would not be available from local app stores pending a review of the Chinese AI startup’s handling of user data.
DeepSeek’s R1 chatbot stunned investors and industry insiders with its ability to match the functions of its Western competitors at a fraction of the cost.
But a number of countries have questioned DeepSeek’s storage of user data, which the firm says is collected in “secure servers located in the People’s Republic of China”.
On Monday, Choi Jang-hyuk, vice chairperson of Seoul’s Personal Information Protection Commission, told a press conference that DeepSeek had been removed from local app stores while authorities “thoroughly examine” its personal data processing practices “to ensure compliance” with local laws.
In a press release, the data protection agency said DeepSeek had “acknowledged that considerations for domestic privacy laws were somewhat lacking”.
The agency assessed that bringing the app into line with local privacy laws “would inevitably take a significant amount of time”, it added.
“To prevent further concerns from spreading, the commission recommended that DeepSeek temporarily suspend its service while making the necessary improvements,” it said, adding that DeepSeek “accepted” that proposal.
‘Use with caution’
The app was removed from local app stores on Saturday at 6:00 pm (0900 GMT).
And DeepSeek was unavailable on the South Korean version of Apple’s app store on Monday.
But it was still available to users who had already downloaded the app.
Seoul’s data protection agency said it “strongly advised” them to “use the service with caution until the final results are announced”.
That included, it said, “refraining from entering personal information into the DeepSeek input field”.
This month, a slew of South Korean government ministries and police said they blocked access to DeepSeek on their computers.
Italy has also launched an investigation into DeepSeek’s R1 model and blocked it from processing Italian users’ data.
Australia has banned DeepSeek from all government devices on the advice of security agencies.
U.S. lawmakers have also proposed a bill to ban DeepSeek from being used on government devices over concerns about user data security.
In response to the bans, the Chinese government has said it opposes the “politicization of economic, trade and technological issues”.
It also insists it “has never and will never require enterprises or individuals to illegally collect or store data”.