Ever since DeepSeek launched its AI assistant, it has taken the tech world by storm. With its growing popularity, this AI assistant has challenged the dominant players in the field, such as ChatGPT. This Chinese AI assistant offers a wide range of capabilities. Yet, privacy concerns surrounding user data remain one of the most pressing and unresolved issues, making it one of the toughest challenges to address.
While almost all countries are debating whether the data-security policies of this Chinese AI assistant are reliable or not, South Korea has taken decisive action against DeepSeek and banned this software from local Play Stores.
It’s been a month since DeepSeek AI Assistant was launched, and on Monday, February 17, 2025, South Korea's Personal Information Protection Commission (PIPC), Choi Jang-hyuk, held a press conference and announced that the government is removing DeepSeek from all the local Play Stores.
In this press conference, he elaborated on this decision and mentioned this removal came after a thorough review of this Chinese app’s personal data processing practices to ensure compliance with South Korean laws. The vice chairperson of the PIPC also mentioned that DeepSeek has admitted that “considerations for domestic privacy laws were somewhat lacking,” and making this AI assistant to maintain all the local laws will take some time. Therefore, this temporary ban is to ensure user data security.
This app is banned on Google Play Store and Apple’s App Store in the country, but users who have already installed this application can keep using it. It’s just that no one can download it in the future. However, the Personal Information Protection Commission of South Korea has advised that existing users should be careful while using the DeepSeek assistant, especially whenever they enter any personal data.
This DeepSeek privacy issue is not restricted to South Korea. Instead, almost all the countries have shared their concern about this Chinese chatbot’s data-handling practices. In fact, several countries have taken security measures to protect their citizens. For instance, Italy has followed the same way as South Korea. It has launched an investigation and banned DeepSeek from processing user data.
Coming to Australia, this country took essential measures against this app. It has banned DeepSeek from all government devices to protect national security. In the United States as well, lawmakers advocated for restrictions and proposed to remove this AI assistant from government devices, or else the Chinese government may access secret data of the country.
Anyway, the Chinese government has strongly protested against all these accusations, stating that it has never gone for illegal means to gain data from other countries, but it looks like others are not convinced by this.
However, this DeepSeek controversy highlights the growing challenges as AI is gradually taking over almost all fields. Now that these apps are becoming part of daily life, data protection concerns are becoming critical for the government and users worldwide.