's intelligence agency has accused Chinese AI app DeepSeekof collecting excessive personal data. The government even sent some privacy questions to the company, but was not satisfied with the answers.
The agency had also sent an official update to government agencieslast week, urging them to take preventive security measures.
"Unlike other genetic AI services, it was confirmed that chat records are transferable, as there is a function to collect keystroke patterns that can recognize faces and communicate with servers of Chinese companies such as volceapplog.com," the South Korean intelligence agency said in a statement yesterday.
See also: Cybercriminals use DeepSeek & Alibaba's LLM
Some ministries in South Korea have already blocked access to DeepSeek, as there are concerns about data security.
The agency said DeepSeek gives advertisers unlimited access to user data and stores South Koreans' data on Chinese servers. Under Chinese law, the Chinese government can access such information if it requests it. For this reason, the AI app puts the security of user data at risk.
South Korea's intelligence agency also commented that DeepSeek may give different answers in different languages, making the results unreliable.
DeepSeek has also been accused of censoring answers to political questions, giving the answer: "Let's talk about something else."
See also: Wiz: DeepSeek data found exposed online
Responding to a question about the South Korean ministries' move to block DeepSeek, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman said the Chinese government attaches great importance to personal data. The spokesman also said Beijing would never ask any company or person to collect or store data in violation of the law.
DeepSeek became particularly popular last month when it unveiled a chatbot that could compete with similar US technologies, with much lower training costs (according to the company's claims).
According to app analytics firm Sensor Tower, the Chinese app's rapid success has caused a stir in Silicon Valley as it questions US dominance in the field of artificial intelligence. In fact, DeepSeek managed to score higher than ChatGPT in the US App Store.
More and more countries are targeting DeepSeek
Countries such as Australia and Italy have placed restrictions on the use of DeepSeek, citing national security risks. Australia banned the use of the Chinese AI app on government devices. Texas Republican Governor Greg Abbottalso imposed a ban on the use of DeepSeek on government-issued devices.
See also: Infostealer malware impersonates DeepSeek tools on PyPI
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India's finance ministry has its employees to avoid using artificial intelligence also asked (AI) tools, including ChatGPT and DeepSeek, for official work, saying the apps could pose a security risk to government documents and data.
The decisions by the above countries serve as a reminder that data privacy remains a pressing issue for governments around the world. In recent years, there has been an increase in cyberattacks targeting government agencies, and the use of foreign technologies on official devices is a growing concern. This is because such applications may be designed to collect sensitive information and transmit it back to their countries, raising national security concerns.
Source: protothema
