The Chinese App, DeepSeek has been on continuous battle to gained full global acceptance since its advent as some countries have put red lines against its usage within their shores.
While some countries have put prohibitions due to data protection reasons; some others do so on security grounds.
Hangzhou city-based Deep Seek, which was founded by Liang Feng in 2023, as an open-source reasoning AI model is posed to compete with OpenAI’s ChatGPT, however has remained a controversial tech app due to its Chinese origin.
In South Korea, the DeepSeek app has been prohibited from being downloaded from app stores in the country pending an assessment of how the Chinese company handles user data.
The Personal Information Protection Commission (PIPC) said the Chinese app would be available to be downloaded once it complies with Korean privacy laws and makes the necessary changes.
The restrictions will not affect usage of the existing app and web service in the country. However, the data protection authority said it “strongly advises” current users to avoid entering personal information into DeepSeek until its final decision is made.
Following the release of the DeepSeek service in South Korea in late January, the PIPC said it reached out to the Chinese AI lab to inquire how it collects and processes personal data, and in its evaluation, found issues with DeepSeek’s third-party service and privacy policies.
The agency said DeepSeek recently appointed a local representative in South Korea and acknowledged that it was not familiar with South Korea’s privacy laws when it launched its service. The Chinese company also said last Friday that it would collaborate closely with Korean authorities.
Earlier this month, South Korea’s Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, police, and a state-run company, Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power, temporarily blocked access to the Chinese AI startup on official devices citing security concerns.
Australia, on the other hand, has prohibited the use of DeepSeek on government devices out of security concerns.
The Garante, Italy’s data protection authority, instructed DeepSeek to block its chatbot in the country.
In Taiwan, government departments were banned fom using DeepSeek AI.
