South Korea’s data protection authority said on Thursday that Chinese artificial intelligence startup DeepSeek transferred user information and prompts without permission when the service was still available for download in the country’s app market.
The Personal Information Protection Commission said in a statement that Hangzhou DeepSeek Artificial Intelligence Co Ltd did not obtain user consent while transferring personal information to a number of companies in China and the United States at the time of its South Korean launch in January.
DeepSeek later told the agency that the decision to send information to Volcano Engine was to improve user experience and that it had blocked the transfer of AI prompt content from April 10, the statement said.