South Korea’s intelligence agency has raised concerns regarding the Chinese AI application DeepSeek, accusing it of “excessively” gathering personal data and utilizing all input data for its training purposes.
The National Intelligence Service (NIS) has questioned the app’s handling of inquiries related to national pride. Last week, the NIS issued an official notice to government bodies, advising them to implement security measures concerning the AI application.
South Korea spy agency says DeepSeek ‘excessively’ collects personal data https://t.co/XStWL4vboS pic.twitter.com/434No3CE6C
— Reuters (@Reuters) February 10, 2025
According to a statement released on Sunday, the NIS highlighted that, unlike other generative AI platforms, DeepSeek allows for the transfer of chat records and possesses a feature that collects keyboard input patterns capable of identifying users, while also communicating with servers linked to Chinese companies, such as volceapplog.com.
In light of security apprehensions, several South Korean government ministries have restricted access to the app, following similar actions taken by Australia and Taiwan.
The NIS further indicated that DeepSeek grants advertisers unrestricted access to user data and stores information from South Korean users on Chinese servers. Under Chinese legislation, the Chinese government could request access to this data, the agency noted.
Additionally, the NIS observed that DeepSeek provided varying responses to sensitive inquiries based on the language used. For instance, when asked about the origin of kimchi—a traditional Korean fermented dish—the app identified it as a Korean dish in Korean but claimed it originated from China when the question was posed in Chinese.
This discrepancy was confirmed by Reuters. The question of kimchi’s origin has been a contentious issue between South Koreans and Chinese social media users in recent years. Furthermore, DeepSeek has faced allegations of censoring responses to politically sensitive topics, such as the 1989 Tiananmen Square incident, prompting the app to suggest changing the subject with phrases like, “Let’s talk about something else.”
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