South Korea suspends new downloads of DeepSeek in China's AI application, because of personal data protection issues

Seoul, February 17 (Reuters) - The Personal Information Protection Committee (PIPC) of South Korea has suspended new downloads of Chinese artificial intelligence application DeepSeek in South Korea because the app failed to comply with South Korea regarding personal data Protection regulations.

PIPC said the suspension measures came into effect on February 17, with the aim of preventing new downloads from DeepSeek, but the app's web services are still accessible in South Korea. PIPC noted that DeepSeek's development company appointed legal representatives in South Korea last week and admitted that South Korea's privacy legal requirements were not fully considered in terms of data protection.

The move follows similar actions taken by Italian data protection agency Garante last month against DeepSeek as the company failed to address regulatory issues in its privacy policy, resulting in its chatbot being blocked in Italy.

DeepSeek has not responded to this yet. In response to South Korea's ban on February 6, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said that the Chinese government attaches great importance to data privacy and security and protects personal data in accordance with the law, emphasizing that Beijing will not require any company or individual to illegally collect or store data.

PIPC said that once DeepSeek makes necessary improvements under South Korea's privacy laws, the service will be restored.