Admitting violation, DeepSeek blocked from new downloads in South Korea

South Korea's data protection agency today (February 17) blocked new downloads of DeepSeek by users in the country, after the Chinese AI application admitted that it did not take into account some rules on personal data protection in the land of kimchi.

According to the Korea Personal Information Protection Commission (PIPC), the DeepSeek app's service will only be allowed to continue after improvements are made in accordance with the country's privacy laws.

DeepSeek admitted to violating personal data protection laws in South Korea.

The blocking measure, which took effect on Saturday, is aimed at preventing South Korean users from downloading new apps, although DeepSeek's web service remains accessible in the country, PIPC said.

Last week, the Chinese artificial intelligence startup appointed a legal representative in South Korea and admitted to partially ignoring data protection law considerations in the country.

In January, Italy's data protection authority, Garante, ordered DeepSeek to block its chatbot in the country, for failing to address the regulator's concerns about its privacy policy.

When asked about previous moves by South Korean government agencies to block DeepSeek, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson responded at a press conference on February 6 that the Chinese government attaches great importance to data privacy and security and protects data in accordance with the law.

The spokesman also said Beijing would never ask any company or individual to collect or store data in violation of the law.

Source: https://www.baogiaothong.vn/thua-nhan-vi-pham-deepseek-bi-chan-tai-moi-tai-han-quoc-192250217134137231.htm