South Korea Bans New Deepseek Downloads Over Data Protection Concerns

On Monday 17th of Feb 2025, South Korea’s data protection authorities announced that DeepSeek, a Chinese AI software, had been banned from new downloads in the nation after DeepSeek admitted to disregarding several of the agency’s guidelines for safeguarding personal information.

The Personal Information Protection Commission (PIPC) stated at a media conference that the app’s service would be restored if enhancements are made that are compatible with the nation’s privacy legislation.

The government stated that although DeepSeek’s online service is still available in the nation, the measure that went into effect on Saturday 15th of Feb attempts to prevent fresh downloads of the program.

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According to the Personal Information Protection Commission (PIPC), the Chinese business admitted to partially ignoring South Korea’s data protection laws when it hired legal counsel there last week.

High Value On Data Privacy

After DeepSeek failed to answer the regulator’s concerns over its privacy policy, the Garante, Italy’s data protection body, expressed last month that it had ordered DeepSeek to disable its chatbot in the nation.

A request for comment from DeepSeek was not immediately answered. A Chinese foreign ministry official at a briefing on the 6th of February said the Chinese government placed a high value on data privacy and security and safeguarded it in compliance with the law when questioned about previous actions taken by South Korean government offices to ban DeepSeek.

Meanwhile the official said that Beijing would never request that any business or person gather or keep data in violation of the law.