Report from the New York Times
In Brief – South Korea’s data protection authority, the Personal Information Protection Commission (PIPC), has suspended downloads of the DeepSeek app after investigating the data policies and practices of the Chinese AI startup and identifying problems that the regulator said, “would inevitably take a considerable amount of time to correct.” DeepSeek’s chatbot has been one of the most downloaded AI apps in South Korea in recent months. The company did not have any operations or employees in South Korea when the PIPIC began its inquiry, but the regulator says that DeepSeek has since appointed an agent in South Korea and had indicated a willingness to work cooperatively to bring the app’s data privacy practices into compliance. Although downloads through the Apple and Google app stores were suspended, South Koreans who had already downloaded the app could still use it and the chatbot could be accessed through the company’s website.
Context – The fact that DeepSeek is based in China is creating data security issues with some governments that are reminiscent of those facing TikTok. Researchers claim to have identified that DeepSeek’s apps transfer user data directly to a Chinese state telecom operator that has close ties to the Chinese Government. Prior to the DIPC banning downloads entirely in the country, the South Korean Government had banned the app from the devices of government officials and employees. Australia and Taiwan have as well. In the US, some federal government agencies, including the Navy and NASA, as well as a handful of state governments, have banned their employees from using the service. In the EU, the AI Act will regulate all AI applications, including chatbot LLMs, but those regulatory processes are largely not yet in place. However, European privacy regulators continue to engage in AI regulation through EU privacy law, and Italy’s data protection authority has suspended DeepSeek in the country for not complying with the GDPR. Based on past sensitivities to Chinese-based apps and user data access, Japan and India may be soon to follow.