South Korea's data protection agency has confirmed that the DeepSeek chatbot, developed by a China-based artificial intelligence startup, sent user data to a third party—ByteDance, the Chinese parent firm of TikTok. This was announced by officials on Tuesday.
The news comes a day after the Personal Information Protection Commission (PIPC) released a statement announcing that it temporarily suspended the installation of new downloads of DeepSeek in South Korea because of issues over how it handles people's data.
"We confirmed DeepSeek communicating with ByteDance," a PIPC official said, reports Yonhap news agency.
However, the official said the PIPC has "yet to confirm what data was transferred and to what extent."
This is the first time that the regulator has confirmed that DeepSeek potentially exposed user data to a third party.
Under South Korean law, a user's express consent must be obtained before their personal information can be disclosed to any third party.
The Personal Information Protection Commission (PIPC) has also made a formal inquiry to DeepSeek, seeking clarification on the chatbot's data collection and handling practices.
In turn, DeepSeek has hired a representative in South Korea and acknowledged not fully taking into consideration local data protection regulations. The company has said it is committed to fully cooperating with the commission's probe.
The government temporarily suspended DeepSeek's local services on Monday over concerns about its data collection methods.
The Personal Information Protection Commission said the service was suspended at 6 p.m. Saturday and will be resumed after "improvements and remedies" are made in line with South Korea's personal information protection laws.
These steps come after a series of rulings by several government ministries and departments to limit internal access to the AI service on account of fear over the startup's data management practices.
In the last month, the commission sent a formal query to DeepSeek, seeking additional information about its data collection and management practices.
In reply, DeepSeek named a representative in South Korea, acknowledged its shortcomings in following local data protection regulations, and pledged to work closely with the commission.
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