The Chinese startup for artificial intelligence DeepSeek has temporarily suspended the download of its chatbot applications in South Korea while it works with local authorities to address confidentiality issues, the South Korean officials reported on Monday.
The South Korean Personal Information Protection Commission stated that DeepSeek applications were removed from the local versions of the App Store by Apple and Google Play on Saturday evening, and the company agreed to cooperate with the agency to strengthen the confidentiality protection before the applications are relaunched.
This measure does not affect users who have already downloaded DeepSeek on their phones or are using it on personal computers.
According to us, Sok, the director of the investigation department of the South Korean commission, is closing the means for South Korean users of DeepSeek to remove the application from devices or refrain from entering personal information in the instrument until the problems are addressed.
Many government agencies and companies in South Korea either blocked DeepSeek on their networks or prohibited employees from using the application at work, fearing that the AI model gathers too much sensitive information.
The South Korean confidentiality commission, having begun to review DeepSeek's services last month, discovered that the company did not have transparency in relation to the transfer of data to third parties and possibly collected excessive amounts of personal information, noted Nam.
The commission does not have estimates of the number of DeepSeek users in South Korea. According to the analysis given by the Wiseapp Retail company, DeepSeek was used by about 1.2 million users in South Korea in the fourth week of January, ranking second in popularity among AI models after ChatGPT.
