DeepSeek app available again for download in South Korea

People from South Korea can download and install the Chinese artificial intelligence service app DeepSeek again after it has been unavailable for over two months.

DeepSeek has been the talk of the town ever since its launch in January 2025. The AI-powered chatbot has been surrounded by controversy from the start because its developer claimed that it was trained and developed for just a fraction of the cost, and its technology rivalled that of the competition.

The popularity of DeepSeek’s R1 model made investors wonder if it was truly necessary to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in chatbots if the same could be accomplished with less money and less powerful chips. United States President Donald Trump called this a “wake-up call” for American tech companies.

Privacy experts were deeply concerned that DeepSeek would collect and process personal and sensitive information from users without consent. That’s why the South Korean government decided to ban DeepSeek from being used by civil servants in January.

In February, the National Intelligence Service (NIS) conducted an investigation and concluded that the Chinese startup ‘excessively’ collects personal data to train its AI chatbot.

“Unlike other generative AI services, it collects keyboard input patterns that can identify individuals, and includes the ability to communicate with Chinese company servers so that chat histories can be transmitted,” South Korea’s chief intelligence agency said in a statement at the time.

South Korea’s data protection authority (DPA), the Personal Information Protection Commission (PIPC), launched an investigation into DeepSeek and concluded that the Chinese startup didn’t comply with the country’s data protection and privacy rules. Therefore, the company was ordered to remove the app from the Play Store and App Store.

Last Thursday, the PIPC repeated its conclusion that DeepSeek collected and transferred personal information from its users without consent when it first launched in South Korea.

The Chinese tech company has implemented some of the PIPC’s recommendations, including the implementation of enhanced protective measures related to personal information.

In addition, no personal information for children under the age of 14 is collected, and age verification procedures are established. That’s why DeepSeek voluntarily decided to make their app available again for download in South Korea.

However, DeepSeek is being kept on a short leash. Personal information security plans will be continuously checked to see if the tech startup implements corrective recommendations.