Recently, the South Korean government announced that it has confirmed DeepSeek transmitted user information to the Chinese company ByteDance and has halted downloads of the DeepSeek application. South Korean citizens have expressed that if DeepSeek violates personal information, a ban should be imposed on the application.
The South Korean Personal Information Protection Committee held a press conference on the progress of the DeepSeek investigation at the Seoul City Hall on February 17th. It announced that it had suspended the download service of the DeepSeek application at 6 p.m. on the 15th and will only restart the service after improvements and enhancements are made in accordance with the South Korean Personal Information Protection Act. The committee also advised users who have downloaded DeepSeek to use it cautiously, avoid entering personal information, or delete the application if already downloaded. South Korea has become the second country to comprehensively ban the download of the DeepSeek application after Italy.
On January 31st, the committee sent a questionnaire to the headquarters of DeepSeek, questioning the manner in which the company collects and processes data in the development and provision of services, including the responsible department for handling user personal information, collection items and purposes, information usage and storage methods, and whether information is shared.
During the review process, the committee found deficiencies in DeepSeek’s protection of foreign user information. In its response on February 14th, DeepSeek admitted to violating relevant laws of South Korea during the launch of its global service and expressed cooperation with measures implemented by the committee.
On the 18th, the committee revealed that the review confirmed DeepSeek transferring user information to the parent company of TikTok, ByteDance, but it is currently unclear what information was transmitted and how much.
According to the South Korean Personal Information Protection Act, companies must obtain user consent before transferring data to third parties. DeepSeek did not comply with this legal requirement when handling personal information.
Ms. Li, a representative of a management consulting firm in South Korea, frequently uses AI such as the free version of ChatGPT and the paid version of Notion AI. She believes that AI is quick and efficient in tasks like creating catalogs, organizing sentences, or generating tables. However, she points out that AI knowledge is not always reliable due to its unclear sources.
Li stated, “Transferring personal information to the parent company of TikTok is an ethical issue for companies.” She emphasized that agreeing to provide personal information to the developers of an application does not mean consenting to receive advertising information or sharing personal information with third-party companies. Lack of comprehensive plans to protect user information in the global market violates corporate ethics, which can affect the ESG rating of the company.
Therefore, Li mentioned that she will not use DeepSeek and recommends individuals who frequently use AI to regularly change their passwords.
James, currently serving as a department manager at a company in SK, has recently started using AI as a daily work tool. When DeepSeek was released, James considered downloading and using it in hopes of achieving better results by using different AI programs simultaneously.
However, due to SK informing employees to refrain from using DeepSeek, any attempt by employees to download DeepSeek privately will be intercepted by the internal network. James can only use ChatGPT following company regulations. He emphasized, “If there are indeed issues of illegal leakage of personal information or distortion of information with DeepSeek, it is necessary to impose a ban.”
Professor Yong-Gu Suh from Sookmyung Women’s University in South Korea and Sung Choi, director of the Northeast Asia Community ICT Forum, both stated that DeepSeek’s major competitive advantage lies in its low development costs and labor force productivity surpassing other countries.
Choi mentioned that the fundamental reason for banning DeepSeek is not for disclosing information to ByteDance but potentially for sending information to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). According to Article 7 of the CCP’s National Intelligence Law, any organization or citizen must support, assist, and cooperate with national intelligence work in a lawful manner and keep the secrets of national intelligence work they know. Chinese companies must cooperate with the CCP, meaning all information obtained by Chinese companies might be shared with the CCP, leading to potential misuse of South Koreans’ personal information.
Therefore, Choi proposed that the method to protect the personal information of South Korean citizens is to urge China to abolish that law. South Korea should negotiate with China through diplomatic channels to resolve this issue.
In order to strengthen the response to personal information protection issues related to DeepSeek, the committee plans to establish a national regulatory cooperation mechanism and hold the Global Privacy Assembly in Seoul in September this year to implement that plan.
In 2024, the committee conducted a five-month preliminary on-site inspection on six major AI services including OpenAI, Google, and Microsoft. The inspection of DeepSeek was carried out by a single staff member.
Additionally, the committee plans to provide review guidelines to overseas AI developers offering services in South Korea and promote legal amendments, establish specific regulations related to AI, and enhance enforcement against foreign companies to ensure effective protection of user personal information when using AI.