DeepSeek shares user data with TikTok owner ByteDance, South Korea says

South Korea has accused Chinese AI startup DeepSeek of sharing user data with TikTok's owner in China.

"We confirmed DeepSeek's communication with ByteDance," South Korea's data protection regulator told Yonhap news agency.

The country had already removed DeepSeek from app stores over the weekend, due to data protection concerns, the Telegraph reports.

The Chinese app caused shockwaves in the AI ​​world in January, wiping billions from global stock markets over claims that its new model was trained at a much lower cost than American rivals like ChatGPT.

Since then, many countries have warned that user data may not be properly protected, and in February a US cybersecurity company alleged possible data sharing between DeepSeek and ByteDance.

DeepSeek's apparent overnight impact saw it climb to the top of the App Store charts in the UK, US and many other countries around the world – although it is now well below ChatGPT in the UK rankings.

In South Korea, it had been downloaded over a million times before being pulled from the Apple and Google App Stores on Saturday evening.

Existing users can still access the app and use it in a web browser.

The data regulator, the Personal Information Protection Commission (PIPC), told South Korea's Yonhap news agency that despite finding a link between DeepSeek and ByteDance, "it still remains to be confirmed what data was transferred and to what extent."

Critics of the Chinese state have long argued its National Intelligence Law allows the government to access any data it wants from Chinese companies.

However, ByteDance, headquartered in Beijing, is owned by a number of global investors – and others say the same law allows for the protection of private companies and personal data.

Fears about sending user data to China were one of the reasons the US Supreme Court approved a ban on TikTok, which is owned by ByteDance.

The US ban is on hold until April 5, as President Donald Trump tries to broker a resolution.

Cybersecurity company Security Scorecard published a blog on DeepSeek on February 10, which suggested “multiple direct references to services owned by ByteDance.”

“These references suggest deep integration with ByteDance’s analytics infrastructure and performance monitoring,” she said in her review of DeepSeek’s Android app.

Security Scorecard expressed concern that along with privacy risks, DeepSeek “user behavior and device metadata [are] likely sent to ByteDance servers.”

It also found data "being transmitted to domains linked to Chinese state entities." /Telegraph/