South Korea Suspends DeepSeek AI Downloads Over Privacy Violations

South Korea has formally suspended new downloads of Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot DeepSeek in the country until the service makes changes to its mobile apps to comply with data protection regulations.

Downloads have been paused as of February 15, 2025, 6:00 p.m. local time, the Personal Information Protection Commission (PIPC) said in a statement. The web service remains accessible.

The agency said it commenced its own analysis of DeepSeek right after its launch and that it "identified some shortcomings in communication functions and personal information processing policies with third-party service providers."

DeepSeek is said to have recently appointed a local representative, per PIPC, with the company also acknowledging it had failed to take into consideration domestic privacy laws when launching the service.

To that end, downloads of DeepSeek are being paused until the company implements the necessary improvements that bring the service in compliance with the Personal Information Protection Act.

"This temporary suspension of the DeepSeek app restricts new app downloads from the app market, and we ask existing users to use it cautiously, such as not entering personal information in the DeepSeek input window (prompt) until the final results are announced," the agency noted.

Furthermore, PIPC intends to ensure compliance and improve guidance so as to prevent similar lapses from occurring in the future.

The development comes shortly after South Korea's National Intelligence Service (NIS) called out the service for "excessively" collecting personal data and using the information to train its AI systems.

In recent weeks, DeepSeek's Android and iOS apps have also been found to contain security weaknesses that allow certain data to be sent to its servers in unencrypted format.

Beijing has previously said it allows internet companies across the world to operate in the country as long as they follow local laws and regulations, and that it would never ask any company or individual to collect or store data in breach of laws..