The DeepSeek app has been removed from app stores in South Korea since Saturday. The Personal Information Protection Commission (PIPC) issued the ban after DeepSeek admitted to failing to comply with several regulations to protect users' personal data.
Although the app is no longer available for download, the service is still accessible via the web and smart device apps. So far, South Korea, Australia and Taiwan have issued orders banning the installation of the DeepSeek app on government-owned devices. The security risks of data being sent to China are the reason for the orders.
The DeepSeek R1 artificial intelligence (AI) model has gained much attention after it was found to be better than models developed by Google and OpenAI but with a development cost that is hundreds of times cheaper. The R1 model is now starting a trend of AI chatbots showing users how they think with a given workflow during the process of providing answers.