DeepSeek Pauses Chatbot App Downloads in South Korea Over Privacy Concerns- wna24

South Korea’s Personal Information Protection Commission announced that DeepSeek’s apps were removed from Apple’s App Store and Google Play on Saturday evening, with the company agreeing to collaborate on strengthening privacy protections before relaunching.

The action does not impact users who have already downloaded DeepSeek on their devices or use it on personal computers. Nam Seok, director of the investigation division, recommended that South Korean users delete the app or refrain from entering personal information until the issues are addressed.

DeepSeek gained global attention last month when it claimed to have developed its popular chatbot at a significantly lower cost than those created by U.S. companies, sparking a market frenzy and fueling debates over U.S.-China competition in AI development.

Many South Korean government agencies and companies have blocked DeepSeek from their networks or banned employees from using the app for work due to concerns over the AI model potentially gathering sensitive information.

The South Korean privacy commission, which began reviewing DeepSeek’s services last month, found that the company lacked transparency regarding third-party data transfers and might have collected excessive personal information, according to Nam.

Nam said that the commission did not have an estimate for the number of DeepSeek users in South Korea. However, a recent analysis by Wiseapp Retail found that in the fourth week of January, DeepSeek was used by approximately 1.2 million smartphone users, making it the second-most-popular AI model after ChatGPT.