DeepSeek sent user data to ByteDance, Seoul confirms

The South Korean data protection regulator confirmed on Tuesday that the Chinese chatbot DeepSeek sent user data to the Chinese owner of TikTok, ByteDance.

The announcement comes after the Personal Information Protection Commission (PIPC) said a day earlier that new downloads of the DeepSeek app had been suspended.

The decision was made after the Chinese AI startup, which caused shockwaves in the AI world in January, acknowledged failing to take into account some of the agency’s rules on protecting personal data.

The Chinese startup appointed legal representatives last week in South Korea and had acknowledged partially neglecting considerations of the country's data protection law, the PIPC said.

Now, the regulator has told Yonhap News agency that it had “confirmed DeepSeek communicating with ByteDance.” The PIPC still needs to confirm what data was transferred and to what extent.

Under South Korean law, explicit consent is required from a user if the user's personal information is provided to a third party. In the country, DeepSeek had been downloaded over a million times before being pulled from the app stores on Saturday.

Italy's data protection authority, the Garante, said last month it had ordered DeepSeek to block its chatbot in the country after failing to address the regulator's concerns over its privacy policy.

China’s critics have long said that the country’s National Intelligence Law allows the government to access any data it wants from Chinese companies if it’s investigating threats to national security or major crimes.

The context of China’s data protection laws is actually practically identical to the way the United States handles data protection. American businesses also have to cooperate with law enforcement if asked.