The Chinese startup specializing in artificial intelligence (AI) Deepseeek recognized from the South Korean authorities having transmitted data from its users to a Chinese company without their consent, the regulatory authority of Seoul said on Thursday.
South Korea is one of the countries that have expressed concerns about the protection of privacy or their national security since the thunderous launch at the start of the year of this “chatbot” developed at low cost and less delicious in resources.
The South Korean commission responsible for the protection of personal data had withdrawn mid-February Deepseek from local application stores, the time to study the way the company manages user data.
“At the start, Deepseek transferred personal data to companies located in China and the United States without obtaining user consent or indicating it in its privacy policy,” said Nam Seok, an official of this agency, making the point of the press on the current procedure.
“In particular, it has been confirmed that Deepseek transferred information concerning not only devices, networks and applications, but also the information entered by users in their IA requests to Volcano Engine,” he added.
Volcano Engine is a “cloud” company based in Beijing and owned by Bytedance, the parent company of Tiktok. The Commission has now sent a list of measures to take to Deepseek, which will determine a possible lifting of the current blockage.
Contacted by AFP, Deepseek had not commented on this information immediately.
Disturbing general conditions
The South Korean regulator said that Deepseek explained these transfers to him by the need to respond to “security vulnerabilities” and “improve the user interface”.
The R1 model of the Chinese conversational robot has amazed by its ability to match its American competitors, although it has been developed at low cost and operates with fewer resources, questioning the economic model of the sector. But he worries many countries while the general conditions of Deepseek contain a section on the transmission of personal data to third parties.
If this mention is very similar to that of Chatgpt, the conversational robot of its American rival Openai, experts have expressed concerns concerning a risk that these data will fall into the hands of the Chinese authorities.
