The chatbot will be unavailable in app stores in South Korea until a background check on users is conducted.
Chatbot DeepSeek will not be available in app stores in South Korea until a probe into the Chinese artificial intelligence startup's work on user data is conducted.
The chatbot has stunned investors and industry insiders with its ability to perform the functions of its Western rivals, and at a bargain.
But a number of countries have questioned DeepSeek's storage of user data, which the firm says is collected in "secure servers located in the People's Republic of China".
Choi Chang-hyeok, deputy chairman of the Seoul Data Protection Commission, told a news conference that DeepSeek has been removed from local app stores while authorities "meticulously examine" its data-handling practices to ensure compliance with local laws.
DeepSeek has "acknowledged that considerations of national data protection laws were somewhat insufficient."
The agency has assessed that bringing the app into compliance with local data protection laws "will inevitably take a significant amount of time", it adds.
"To prevent further spread of concerns, the commission recommended that DeepSeek temporarily suspend its service until it makes the necessary improvements," Seoul authorities said. | BGNES