On February 9, the National Intelligence Service (NIS) of South Korea accused China’s artificial intelligence application DeepSeek of “excessive” collection of personal data and storing data of South Korean users on servers in China.
The NIS stated that it had issued a formal notice to government agencies in South Korea last week, urging them to take security precautions regarding the DeepSeek application.
According to the statement from the National Intelligence Service, DeepSeek is different from other generative artificial intelligence services as it has confirmed that the chat records of DeepSeek are transferable because it includes features that collect keyboard input patterns that can identify individuals and communicates with servers of Chinese companies, such as volceapplog.com.
Due to security concerns, some government departments in South Korea have already blocked the use of government devices to access the application. Previously, Australia has also issued similar bans to public servants and critical infrastructure employees.
The NIS of South Korea mentioned that DeepSeek allows advertisers unlimited access to user data and stores the data of South Korean users on servers in China. According to Chinese law, if requested by the Chinese Communist Party, companies within China must allow access to this information.
The National Intelligence Service of South Korea also stated that DeepSeek provides different answers to potential sensitive issues in different languages.
For example, when asked about the origin of kimchi in Korean, the application states that kimchi is a Korean dish; however, when the same question is asked in Chinese, it states that kimchi originated in China. Other users have confirmed this occurrence.
In recent years, the origin of kimchi has sometimes become a focal point of debate between South Koreans and Chinese social media users.
Users have also found that DeepSeek censors responses to political issues. For instance, when asked about the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown, DeepSeek would suggest changing the topic: “Let’s talk about something else.”
(This article references a report from Reuters.)