DeepSeek's downloads halted in South Korea over privacy issues

In South Korea, the Personal Information Protection Commission announced on February 17, 2025, that new downloads of the Chinese artificial intelligence app DeepSeek had been temporarily suspended. This suspension came as part of the country's privacy regulations after DeepSeek acknowledged that it failed to comply with some of the data protection laws. The ban on new downloads took effect on February 15, and South Korean authorities are demanding that DeepSeek make necessary improvements to its privacy protocols before allowing the app's service to resume. The app's decision to stop new downloads aligns with broader concerns among South Korean officials about the handling of user data by foreign technology companies. Reports indicate that DeepSeek's services were scrutinized following findings from a review that began in January, whereby the company was flagged for not being transparent regarding third-party data transfers and possibly collecting excessive personal information from users. As a result of these findings, South Korean government agencies and private companies have prohibited the use of DeepSeek or blocked it from their networks. Users who had already downloaded the app were not affected by the suspension; however, the country's authorities urged existing users to delete the app and avoid sharing personal information until privacy issues were adequately addressed. Nam Seok, the director of the investigation division of the Personal Information Protection Commission, elaborated that the commission lacked information about the total number of DeepSeek users in South Korea. Nevertheless, a recent analysis estimated that around 1.2 million smartphone users in the country were actively using DeepSeek by late January. This suspension is not isolated to South Korea; similar actions were taken by Italy's data protection agency, the Garante, which ordered DeepSeek to block its chatbot due to privacy policy concerns. The Chinese government has responded to these allegations, asserting that it values data privacy and security, stating that it would not compel any company to violate privacy laws. The outcome of these ongoing investigations may have wider implications for the Chinese tech company's operations in international markets. These developments raise critical questions about how foreign apps manage user data and comply with regional privacy laws.