Seoul: Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) service DeepSeek, which recently faced scrutiny for transferring Korean user information overseas without proper consent, has released a Korean-language version of its revised information processing policy.
According to Yonhap News Agency, the disclosure follows a report by the Personal Information Protection Commission (PIPC) last week, which highlighted that DeepSeek had transferred personal information of Korean users to three companies in China and one in the United States. This transfer was done without obtaining consent from the users or clearly stating the transfer in its information processing policy.
The PIPC revealed that DeepSeek also transmitted user-entered prompts to Volcano, a Chinese company associated with ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok. The commission has urged the company to establish legal grounds for such overseas information transfers, destroy the transmitted prompt information, and provide a Korean-language version of its information processing policy.
In its newly revised policy, DeepSeek has introduced a supplementary regulation specifically for South Korea, committing to process personal information in accordance with the Korean Personal Information Protection Act.
DeepSeek had previously suspended its service in South Korea on February 15, only a month after its launch, due to controversies surrounding its data management practices. The service has not yet resumed operations in the country.