The South Korea data protection regulator has accused Deepseek of having sent data to citizens using its IA chatbot to the mother company of Tiktok, Bytedance. This accusation one day occurs after ordering a temporary block on new Deepseek downloads on confidentiality problems.
“We have confirmed that Deepseek communicating with Bytedance,” said a person responsible for the Personal Information Protection Commission (PIPC), adding that it is a question of “further confirming which data has been transferred and in what measure”.
Although he does not comment directly with such allegations, Deepseek would have recognized “gaps by considering local protection laws” and expressed the commitment to cooperate with the regulator on the issue.
Chinese technology under a meticulous examination
South Korea is perhaps the first to officially accuse Deepseek of illegally sharing user data with the controversial owner of Tiktok, but it is not the only country to go after the new Chinese AI chatbot for reasons confidentiality.
Deepseek has sent serious shock waves around the world since the January release, in fact. With 12 million curious people worldwide downloading the new application within 48 hours of launch, governments have more and more examined the Deepseek phenomenon with suspicion.
Italy, France, Germany, the United States, Taiwan, Australia and South Korea are only some countries targeting a deep AI. Most accuse the new Chinese AI chatbot violating the country’s data protection laws.
Deepseek problems are mainly linked to the fact that the chatbot has stored all user data on its Chinese servers and, in accordance with the platform’s privacy policy, will be used to “comply with our legal obligations, or if necessary for Carry out tasks in the public interest, or to protect the vital interests of our users and other people.
Now, the allegations of the South Korea PIPC strengthen growing concerns among Western governments on how the data of their citizens are processed by these companies.
The concerns about the data of Americans are found in the hands of the Chinese government are one of the reasons for the thrust for a ban by Tiktok in the United States.
Outside the United States, many countries, including the United Kingdom and certain European nations, have also prohibited the Tiktok from official security problems.
Bytedance, however, has long rejected these risks – and he also did it for the new accusation brought by South Korea.
As the independent reported, Tiktok’s parent company thinks that its link with Deepseek is simply because the Ai chatbot uses the cloud services provided by Volcano Engine, which belongs to Bytedance. However, this “This does not mean that he has access to Deepseek data,” notes the paper.
The South Korea data regulator is not the only one to suggest that the two Chinese companies communicate. A recent report published by the Cybersecurity Society SecuirtyScorecard also found “integration with the services of Bytedance” in the Deepseek code.
What is certain now is that the supplier operating Deepseek will have to respond to the clarifications of South Korean officials on the issue now that an official survey on its data processing practices has been launched.
