DeepSeek faces global heat as South Korea pauses app download

DeepSeek, a Chinese artificial intelligence startup, has temporarily paused downloads of its chatbot apps in South Korea while it works with local authorities to address privacy concerns, according to South Korean officials on Monday.

South Korea’s Personal Information Protection Commission said DeepSeek’s apps were removed from the local versions of Apple’s App Store and Google Play on Saturday evening and that the company agreed to work with the agency to strengthen privacy protections before relaunching the apps.

The action does not affect users who have already downloaded DeepSeek on their phones or use it on personal computers. Nam Seok, director of the South Korean commission’s investigation division, advised South Korean users of DeepSeek to delete the app from their devices or avoid entering personal information into the tool until the issues are resolved.

Many South Korean government agencies and companies have either blocked DeepSeek from their networks or prohibited employees from using the app for work, amid worries that the AI model was gathering too much sensitive information.

The South Korean privacy commission, which began reviewing DeepSeek’s services last month, found that the company lacked transparency about third-party data transfers and potentially collected excessive personal information, Nam said.

Nam said the commission did not have an estimate on the number of DeepSeek users in South Korea. A recent analysis by Wiseapp Retail found that DeepSeek was used by about 1.2 million smartphone users in South Korea during the fourth week of January, emerging as the second-most-popular AI model behind ChatGPT.

Pushback in many countries

A number of governments from Rome to Canberra are cracking down on the Chinese app, saying they need to prevent potential leaks of sensitive information through generative AI services.

First to act was Italy, which launched an investigation into DeepSeek and said it was blocking the upstart Chinese app from possessing Italian users' data. Italy's Data Protection Authority had briefly blocked Western competitor ChatGPT in 2023.

Italy’s actions may signal a broader European response. France’s data protection authority, CNIL, has indicated its intent to question DeepSeek about its AI systems.

Next, Taiwan banned workers in the public sector and at key infrastructure facilities from using DeepSeek, saying it was a Chinese product and could endanger national security.

Australia followed suit days after. The Australian government has insisted however that the ban is not due to the app's Chinese origins but because of the "unacceptable risk" it poses to national security.

US lawmakers have also moved to introduce a "No Deepseek on Government Devices Act", with Congressman Darin LaHood saying the national security threat that "Chinese Communist Party-affiliated company" DeepSeek posed to the United States was "alarming".

State-level bans were also issued in Texas, Virginia and New York. Texas Governor Greg Abbott said personal information "must be protected from malicious espionage operations by the Chinese Communist Party."

Privacy risk or tech politics?

It is worth noting that DeepSeek's terms and conditions include a clause on sharing personal data with third parties—strikingly similar to the one found in OpenAI's ChatGPT.

"In China, when the government requests access, companies are legally obligated to provide user data," Youm Heung-youl, a data security professor at Soonchunhyang University, told AFP.

Beijing, for its part, claims the restrictions do not reflect legitimate national security concerns but highlight "the politicisation of economic, trade and technological issues".

It says the Chinese government "will never require enterprises or individuals to illegally collect or store data".

While US tech firms often push back against government demands, past cases involving TikTok, Snap, X, Discord and Meta demonstrate that, when pressured, they too can be scrutinised, coerced, or compelled to comply.

China's AI ambitions

Experts point to the enormous amount of research and development (R&D) China has poured into companies in recent years.

According to data from the Korea Chamber of Commerce, China ranked second among the world's top R&D investors, following the US, but showed the most significant growth, with its investment volume soaring more than 11-fold over the past decade.

DeepSeek stunned the world in January when it unveiled a chatbot which matched the performance level of US rivals, while claiming it had a much lower training cost.

DeepSeek says it uses less-advanced H800 chips – permitted for sale to China until 2023 under US export controls – to power its large learning model.

While semiconductor exporting powerhouses South Korea and Taiwan have been thriving on sales of cutting-edge chips, DeepSeek has thrown the industry into turmoil.

"If DeepSeek really used H800, it means that even without cutting-edge semiconductors, similar outcomes could be achieved with general semiconductors, as long as the software is good," Park Ki-soon, a professor of Chinese economics at Sungkyunkwan University told AFP.

"Countries like the US and China are investing massive amounts of talent and resources into software development," he said, adding that DeepSeek showed governments needed to boost this further and "provide support to foster this growth".

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Source: TRT