Chinese artificial intelligence startup DeepSeek has temporarily halted downloads of its chatbot app in South Korea amid heightened scrutiny over data privacy concerns, according to South Korea's Personal Information Protection Commission (PIPC). The app was removed from the local versions of Apple's App Store and Google Play on Saturday evening, with the company agreeing to work with regulators to strengthen privacy protections before reinstating availability.
The commission stated that DeepSeek's apps were taken down from the local versions of Apple's App Store and Google Play and that the company agreed to work with the agency to enhance privacy protections before relaunching. It also advised South Korean users to delete the app from their devices or avoid entering personal information into the tool until the issues are resolved.
The removal does not affect individuals who had already downloaded the app before the suspension or those using DeepSeek's services via personal computers. However, many South Korean government agencies and businesses have proactively blocked DeepSeek from their networks, citing fears that the AI model could collect excessive sensitive information.
DeepSeek, which gained significant attention last month for claiming to have developed a chatbot at a fraction of the cost of U.S. counterparts, has become a flashpoint in the broader competition between China and the United States in AI development. The company's rise has intensified debates over technological supremacy, particularly after it briefly surpassed OpenAI's ChatGPT as the top-rated free app on Apple's App Store in the U.S. on January 27.
South Korean regulators began reviewing DeepSeek's operations last month, raising concerns that the company lacked transparency regarding third-party data transfers and may have been collecting excessive personal information, according to Nam Seok, director of the commission's investigation division.
Nam said the commission did not have an estimate of the number of DeepSeek users in South Korea. A recent analysis by Wiseapp Retail found that about 1.2 million smartphone users in the country had used the chatbot during the fourth week of January, making it the second most popular AI model in South Korea, behind OpenAI's ChatGPT.
