Seoul, Feb 18
South Korea's data protection regulator has confirmed that the DeepSeek chatbot, developed by a China-based artificial intelligence startup, sent the nation's user data to a third party, the Chinese owner of TikTok, ByteDance, according to officials on Tuesday.

The confirmation came a day after the regulator, the Personal Information Protection Commission (PIPC), announced it has temporarily suspended new downloads of DeepSeek in South Korea over concerns about its data collection practices.

"We confirmed DeepSeek communicating with ByteDance," a PIPC official said, reports Yonhap news agency.

However, the official said the PIPC has "yet to confirm what data was transferred and to what extent."

It was the first time the regulator confirmed potential leaks of user data by DeepSeek to a third party.

Under South Korean law, explicit consent is required from a user if the user's personal information is provided to a third party.

The PIPC also sent a formal inquiry to DeepSeek seeking clarification on the service's data collection and management methods.

In response, DeepSeek has since assigned a representative in South Korea and acknowledged shortcomings in considering local protection laws while also expressing its will to actively cooperate with the commission.

The government said on Monday it has temporarily suspended the local service of Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) app DeepSeek over concerns about its data collection practices.

The Personal Information Protection Commission said the service was suspended at 6 p.m. Saturday and will be resumed after "improvements and remedies" are made in line with South Korea's personal information protection laws.

The measures come after multiple government ministries and agencies blocked internal access to the AI service amid concerns about the startup's data management practices.

The commission sent a formal inquiry to DeepSeek last month seeking clarification on the service's data collection and management methods.

DeepSeek has since assigned a representative in South Korea and acknowledged shortcomings in considering local protection laws while also expressing its will to actively cooperate with the commission.

DeepSeek sent South Korean user data to China's ByteDance: Regulator