South Korea’s National Intelligence Service (NIS) has accused Chinese AI app DeepSeek of excessive data collection and security risks, urging government agencies to take precautions.

The NIS highlighted that DeepSeek transfers chat records and collects keyboard input patterns to communicate with Chinese servers. It also alleged that user data is stored in China, potentially accessible to the Chinese government under their laws.

In response to security concerns, some South Korean government ministries have blocked the app, joining Australia and Taiwan in restricting its use.

DeepSeek has also come under scrutiny for providing different answers to sensitive questions in various languages. For example, it attributed the origin of kimchi to Korea in Korean but to China in Chinese.

The app faces additional accusations of censoring political issues, including the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown, by diverting conversations.

While DeepSeek did not immediately comment, China’s foreign ministry emphasised its commitment to data privacy and denied any legal breaches.

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