South Korea's Personal Information Protection Commission (PIPC) has discovered that DeepSeek, a Chinese AI chatbot, is transmitting user data to ByteDance, TikTok's parent company.

The PIPC has suspended new downloads of DeepSeek in South Korea following this discovery. While the commission confirmed data transmission to ByteDance, specific details about the type and extent of data shared remain undisclosed.

South Korean law requires explicit user consent for sharing personal information with third parties. DeepSeek has acknowledged its data collection policies fall short of South Korean legal requirements and has appointed a local representative to cooperate with authorities.

Key Developments:

• DeepSeek claims to have trained its AI model at lower costs than competitors like ChatGPT
• Multiple countries have investigated DeepSeek's data collection practices
• A U.S. cybersecurity firm, Security Scorecard, found "multiple direct references to ByteDance-owned" services in the model
• South Korea, Australia, and Taiwan have banned DeepSeek from government devices

The PIPC has issued a warning to users, advising them to "exercise caution and avoid entering personal information into the chatbot." DeepSeek faces ongoing scrutiny as regulators seek clarification about its data handling practices.

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