DeepSeek’s R1 chatbot stunned investors and industry insiders with its ability to match the functions of its Western competitors at a fraction of the cost. But a number of countries have questioned the storage of user data, which the firm says is collected in \”secure servers located in the People’s Republic of China\” Seoul’s Personal Information Protection Commission said DeepSeek would no longer be available for download until a review of its personal data collection practices was carried out. The app was removed from local app stores on Saturday at 6:00 pm (0900 GMT) and remains unavailable for those who have already downloaded the app. The Chinese government has said it opposes the \”politicisation of economic, trade and technological issues\” and insists it \”has never and will never require enterprises or individuals to illegally collect or store data\” for its AI chatbot, which is still in use in South Korea. The firm has \”acknowledged that considerations for domestic privacy laws were somewhat lacking\”, the data protection agency said. It assessed that bringing the app into line with local privacy laws \”would inevitably take a significant amount of time\”, the agency added.
