The Personal Information Protection Commission announced on the 17th that the domestic service of the AI-based conversational service ‘Deepseek App’ has been temporarily suspended from 6 PM on February 15th. This measure was taken to improve and supplement the service after concerns were raised that the Deepseek App was operating without complying with domestic personal information protection laws.
The Commission explained that it had been analyzing the personal information collection and processing methods since the launch of the Deepseek App, and confirmed several issues including data sharing with third-party operators, communication functions, and inadequate privacy policies, which were pointed out by domestic and international media.
Deepseek acknowledged that it had not considered domestic protection laws and officially expressed its willingness to cooperate with the Commission on the 14th, after designating a domestic representative on the 10th. Accordingly, the Commission recommended temporarily suspending the service in app markets to prevent further concerns until the service is improved and supplemented, which Deepseek accepted.
During the service suspension period, the Commission plans to thoroughly examine Deepseek’s personal information processing practices to ensure compliance with protection laws.
While last year’s inspection of major AI services including OpenAI, Google, and Microsoft took five months, this Deepseek inspection is expected to proceed more quickly as it involves a single operator and builds upon accumulated investigation experience.
Furthermore, during the inspection process, they plan to guide Deepseek to meet the requirements of domestic protection laws, and when announcing the final results, they will provide personal information protection guidelines that foreign AI companies must follow before launching domestic services.
The Commission plans to pursue amendments to the Protection Act to balance AI utilization and personal information protection following this measure.
Specifically, the law is expected to be amended to establish special provisions for AI and strengthen enforcement against overseas operators. Additionally, they plan to enhance cooperation between global personal information protection organizations and deepen related discussions through the ‘Global Privacy Assembly (GPA)’ to be held in Seoul this September.
This suspension measure restricts new downloads from app markets, while existing users can continue to use the service. The Commission advised existing users to use the service cautiously, such as not entering personal information in the Deepseek prompt, until the final inspection results are announced.
Moreover, they plan to investigate the current status of personal information processing and storage for existing users during the inspection process, and will establish additional protective measures if necessary.
As the domestic AI service market grows rapidly, attention is focused on how the government’s move to strengthen personal information protection standards will impact the industry.