South Korea Halts DeepSeek App Downloads in Local Stores
On Saturday, South Korean officials put a temporary hold on downloads of the Chinese AI Lab DeepSeek's app from app stores in the country. They're doing this while they figure out how the Chinese company deals with user data. The Personal Information Protection Commission (PIPC) mentioned that the app can be downloaded again once DeepSeek follows Korean privacy laws and makes the required tweaks.
This restriction won't mess with folks who are already using the app or the web service in South Korea. But, the data protection authority is kinda nudging current users to hold off on entering personal info into DeepSeek until they make their final call.
After DeepSeek rolled out its service in South Korea towards the end of January, the PIPC got in touch with the Chinese AI lab to ask about their data collection and processing methods. They found some issues with DeepSeek's third-party services and privacy policies during their review.
The PICC told TechCrunch that their investigation showed DeepSeek had sent South Korean user data over to ByteDance, which is TikTok's parent company.
DeepSeek hasn't gotten back to us yet about this whole thing.
The agency said that DeepSeek recently got a local rep in South Korea and admitted they weren't up to speed on South Korea's privacy laws when they launched. Last Friday, the Chinese company also said they'd work closely with Korean authorities.
Earlier this month, South Korea's Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, the police, and Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power, a state-run company, temporarily blocked DeepSeek on their official devices due to security worries.
South Korea isn't the only one being careful about DeepSeek because of its Chinese roots. Australia has banned DeepSeek on government devices for security reasons. Italy's data protection authority, the Garante, told DeepSeek to block its chatbot in the country, and Taiwan has stopped government departments from using DeepSeek AI.
DeepSeek, based in Hangzhou and founded by Liang Feng in 2023, launched DeepSeek R1, a free, open-source reasoning AI model that's going head-to-head with OpenAI's ChatGPT.
> DeepSeek: The countries and agencies that have banned the AI company’s tech
Related article
DeepSeek-GRM: Revolutionizing Scalable, Cost-Efficient AI for Businesses
If you're running a business, you know how tough it can be to integrate Artificial Intelligence (AI) into your operations. The high costs and technical complexity often put advance
New Technique Enables DeepSeek and Other Models to Respond to Sensitive Queries
Removing bias and censorship from large language models (LLMs) like China's DeepSeek is a complex challenge that has caught the attention of U.S. policymakers and business leaders, who see it as a potential national security threat. A recent report from a U.S. Congress select committee labeled DeepS
Former DeepSeeker and collaborators release new method for training reliable AI agents: RAGEN
The Year of AI Agents: A Closer Look at 2025's Expectations and Realities2025 was heralded by many experts as the year when AI agents—specialized AI systems powered by advanced large language and multimodal models from companies like OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and DeepSeek—would finally take center
Comments (45)
0/200
![ArthurCarter]()
ArthurCarter
April 19, 2025 at 9:55:00 PM EDT
Just found out about the DeepSeek app being blocked in South Korea! It's kinda scary how they're worried about user data privacy. Hope they sort it out soon, I was looking forward to trying it out. 😅 Anyone know of similar apps that are safe to use?
0
![JohnYoung]()
JohnYoung
April 18, 2025 at 7:56:39 PM EDT
딥시크를 다운로드하려던 찰나에 한국에서의 금지 소식을 들었어요. 사용자 데이터를 어떻게 다루는지 생각하면 좀 무섭네요. 빨리 해결되길 바랍니다, 그 전까지는 손대지 않을 거예요. 안전이 먼저죠? 🛡️
0
![GaryGonzalez]()
GaryGonzalez
April 17, 2025 at 3:42:32 AM EDT
ディープシークのアプリが韓国でダウンロード停止になったのを知って、ちょっとガッカリ。使い始めたばっかりだったのに！他のアプリを探すか、解決を待つしかないね。ユーザーデータの問題、早く解決してほしいな！🤞
0
![WillLopez]()
WillLopez
April 16, 2025 at 11:40:14 PM EDT
한국이 DeepSeek 앱 다운로드를 중단했다고? 좀 아쉽지만, 데이터 프라이버시에 신중한 것뿐이겠지. 빨리 해결되길 바래, 사용해보고 싶었어! 🤔📱
0
![BrianThomas]()
BrianThomas
April 16, 2025 at 7:33:58 PM EDT
Então, a Coreia do Sul decidiu interromper os downloads do aplicativo DeepSeek? Isso é um pouco frustrante, mas acho que eles estão apenas sendo cautelosos com a privacidade dos dados. Espero que resolvam isso em breve, estava ansioso para experimentar! 🤔📱
0
![MarkGonzalez]()
MarkGonzalez
April 16, 2025 at 1:29:27 AM EDT
Just found out about the South Korea ban on DeepSeek app downloads. It's kinda frustrating because I was really getting into it! Now I gotta find an alternative or wait it out. Hope they sort out the data issues soon! 🤞
0
On Saturday, South Korean officials put a temporary hold on downloads of the Chinese AI Lab DeepSeek's app from app stores in the country. They're doing this while they figure out how the Chinese company deals with user data. The Personal Information Protection Commission (PIPC) mentioned that the app can be downloaded again once DeepSeek follows Korean privacy laws and makes the required tweaks.
This restriction won't mess with folks who are already using the app or the web service in South Korea. But, the data protection authority is kinda nudging current users to hold off on entering personal info into DeepSeek until they make their final call.
After DeepSeek rolled out its service in South Korea towards the end of January, the PIPC got in touch with the Chinese AI lab to ask about their data collection and processing methods. They found some issues with DeepSeek's third-party services and privacy policies during their review.
The PICC told TechCrunch that their investigation showed DeepSeek had sent South Korean user data over to ByteDance, which is TikTok's parent company.
DeepSeek hasn't gotten back to us yet about this whole thing.
The agency said that DeepSeek recently got a local rep in South Korea and admitted they weren't up to speed on South Korea's privacy laws when they launched. Last Friday, the Chinese company also said they'd work closely with Korean authorities.
Earlier this month, South Korea's Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, the police, and Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power, a state-run company, temporarily blocked DeepSeek on their official devices due to security worries.
South Korea isn't the only one being careful about DeepSeek because of its Chinese roots. Australia has banned DeepSeek on government devices for security reasons. Italy's data protection authority, the Garante, told DeepSeek to block its chatbot in the country, and Taiwan has stopped government departments from using DeepSeek AI.
DeepSeek, based in Hangzhou and founded by Liang Feng in 2023, launched DeepSeek R1, a free, open-source reasoning AI model that's going head-to-head with OpenAI's ChatGPT.
> DeepSeek: The countries and agencies that have banned the AI company’s tech
DeepSeek-GRM: Revolutionizing Scalable, Cost-Efficient AI for Businesses
If you're running a business, you know how tough it can be to integrate Artificial Intelligence (AI) into your operations. The high costs and technical complexity often put advance
New Technique Enables DeepSeek and Other Models to Respond to Sensitive Queries
Removing bias and censorship from large language models (LLMs) like China's DeepSeek is a complex challenge that has caught the attention of U.S. policymakers and business leaders, who see it as a potential national security threat. A recent report from a U.S. Congress select committee labeled DeepS
Former DeepSeeker and collaborators release new method for training reliable AI agents: RAGEN
The Year of AI Agents: A Closer Look at 2025's Expectations and Realities2025 was heralded by many experts as the year when AI agents—specialized AI systems powered by advanced large language and multimodal models from companies like OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and DeepSeek—would finally take center
April 19, 2025 at 9:55:00 PM EDT
Just found out about the DeepSeek app being blocked in South Korea! It's kinda scary how they're worried about user data privacy. Hope they sort it out soon, I was looking forward to trying it out. 😅 Anyone know of similar apps that are safe to use?
0
April 18, 2025 at 7:56:39 PM EDT
딥시크를 다운로드하려던 찰나에 한국에서의 금지 소식을 들었어요. 사용자 데이터를 어떻게 다루는지 생각하면 좀 무섭네요. 빨리 해결되길 바랍니다, 그 전까지는 손대지 않을 거예요. 안전이 먼저죠? 🛡️
0
April 17, 2025 at 3:42:32 AM EDT
ディープシークのアプリが韓国でダウンロード停止になったのを知って、ちょっとガッカリ。使い始めたばっかりだったのに！他のアプリを探すか、解決を待つしかないね。ユーザーデータの問題、早く解決してほしいな！🤞
0
April 16, 2025 at 11:40:14 PM EDT
한국이 DeepSeek 앱 다운로드를 중단했다고? 좀 아쉽지만, 데이터 프라이버시에 신중한 것뿐이겠지. 빨리 해결되길 바래, 사용해보고 싶었어! 🤔📱
0
April 16, 2025 at 7:33:58 PM EDT
Então, a Coreia do Sul decidiu interromper os downloads do aplicativo DeepSeek? Isso é um pouco frustrante, mas acho que eles estão apenas sendo cautelosos com a privacidade dos dados. Espero que resolvam isso em breve, estava ansioso para experimentar! 🤔📱
0
April 16, 2025 at 1:29:27 AM EDT
Just found out about the South Korea ban on DeepSeek app downloads. It's kinda frustrating because I was really getting into it! Now I gotta find an alternative or wait it out. Hope they sort out the data issues soon! 🤞
0
