South Korea Halts DeepSeek Over Data Privacy Breach

South Korea’s data watchdog has accused Chinese AI app DeepSeek of transferring personal user data abroad without consent, prompting legal action and policy scrutiny.

South Korean privacy watchdogs discovered that DeepSeek, a Chinese artificial intelligence app, moved personal data and user-entered prompts outside the country without obtaining user consent, as first reported by Reuters.

The Personal Information Protection Commission (PIPC) said on Thursday that while DeepSeek was available for download in South Korea earlier this year, it collected data from users and sent it to companies in China and the U.S. Reuters reports that this included sensitive information such as text users typed into the app, along with their device and network details.

Volcano Engine, which operates as a Beijing-based cloud service, received one of the transfers. The PIPC stated that DeepSeek transferred the data to “enhance user experience” without notifying users or seeking their consent for the data sharing, as noted by Reuters.

Aljazeera reports that Nam Seok, head of the commission’s investigation bureau, confirmed during a press conference that DeepSeek “acknowledged it had insufficiently considered Korea’s data protection laws” and “expressed its willingness to cooperate with the commission, and voluntarily suspended new downloads.”

Following this discovery, the app was removed from South Korean app stores in February. On Thursday, Reuters reported that the commission issued a corrective recommendation which required DeepSeek to delete all prompt data it had sent, and to establish a legal process for future overseas data transfers.

In response to the controversy, China’s Foreign Ministry insisted that it values user privacy and does not pressure companies to gather data illegally. “We have never – and will never – require companies or individuals to collect or store data through illegal means,” ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said, as reported by Aljazeera.