South Korea’s Data Protection Regulator has accused Deepseek of sending citizens’ data using his AI -Chatbot to Tiktok’s parent company ByteDance. This accusation comes a day after ordering a temporary block on new Deepseek downloads over the concerns of privacy.
“We confirmed that Deepseek, who communicated with bytance,” an official told the country’s personal information protection commission (PIPC) to Yonhap News Agency, adding that it is “yet to confirm what data was transferred and to what extent.”
While they do not directly comment on such claims, Deepseek allegedly recognized “deficiencies by considering local protection laws” and expressed the obligation to cooperate with the regulator on the case.
Chinese technique under increased control
South Korea may be the first to formally accuse Deepseek of illegally sharing users’ data with the controversial Tiktok owner, but it is not the only country that goes after the new Chinese AI Chatbot on privacy.
Deepseek has actually sent some serious shock waves across the globe since January’s release. With 12 million curious people around the world to download the new app within 48 hours of launch, governments have increasingly looked at Deepseek’s phenomenon with suspicion.
Italy, France, Germany, USA, Taiwan, Australia and South Korea are only some of the countries targeting Deepseek AI. Most accuse the new Chinese AI -Chatbot of violating the country’s data protection laws.
Deepseeks problems are mainly linked to the fact that chatboten stored all users’ data on its Chinese servers, and in accordance with the privacy policy of the platform will be used to “comply with our legal obligations or, if necessary, to perform tasks in general interest, or to protect Our user and other people’s vital interests.
Now, South Korea’s PIPC accusations are strengthening growing concerns among Western governments about how their citizens’ data is being processed by such companies.
Concerns of Americans’ data that ends up in the hands of the Chinese government is one of the reasons for pushing for a Tikkok ban in the United States.
Outside the United States, many countries including the UK and some European nations have also banned Tikkok from officials’ units of security concerns.
However, bytance has long rejected these risks – and so did the new accusation that South Korea has brought.
As The Independent reported, Tiktok’s parent company believes that its connection with Deepseek is simply because AI Chatbot uses the cloud services provided by Volcano Engine, which is owned by Bytedance. Still, this “Don’t mean it has access to Deepseek data,” notes the paper.
South Korea’s data regulator is not the only one who suggests the two Chinese companies are communicating. A recent report published by CyberSecurity Firm Secuirtscorecard has also found “Integration with Bytedan’s services” within Deepseeks code.
What is now certain is that the provider who drives Deepseek will have to respond to South Korean officials’ clarifications on the case now that an official investigation into its data management practice has been launched.
