South Korea has accused the Chinese AI startup DeepSeek of sharing user data with the TikTok parent company ByteDance after banning the app in the country.
According to Independent, South Korea, days after removing the DeepSeek app from the local versions of the Apple and Google app stores, claimed that the AI startup was “communicating with ByteDance.”
The South Korean data regulator told the Yonhap News Agency that it is “confirmed” that DeepSeek is in connection with ByteDance; however, the nature of the data shared with the firm is not confirmed yet.
Meanwhile, DeepSeek said that the connection of the two companies is made because in China it uses a cloud service called Volcano Engine, owned by ByteDance, but it does not mean that the AI company shares data with it.
As per the report, the South Korean data protection regulator, in a formal inquiry to the AI startup, asked it to give clarification about its data collection and management methods.
In response to the inquiry, DeepSeek accepted “shortcomings” in its data protection laws for South Korea and vowed to actively work on the regulations to fix it.
