Chinese artificial intelligence company DeepSeek, facing criticism for excessive personal data collection, has recently introduced a Japanese-language version of its privacy policy. However, the absence of a dedicated policy for Korean users has raised concerns.
Previously, DeepSeek offered its privacy policy only in English. The addition of a Japanese version follows an earlier update to its privacy terms for European countries, according to industry sources on Monday.
A privacy policy outlines how a company collects, uses, shares and safeguards personal data. It also specifies retention periods and the rights of data subjects.
The newly introduced Japanese privacy policy includes detailed descriptions of data collection categories, retention periods, usage purposes, data subject rights, storage locations and policies regarding children under 14 years old, similar to its English counterpart.
Last month, DeepSeek revised its privacy policy to incorporate additional provisions for the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom and Switzerland. The company pledged to use personal data only within the limits of local laws, providing detailed explanations of the types of data collected and the legal basis for their processing.
Despite these updates, the AI firm has yet to introduce a dedicated privacy policy for Korean users. The omission has led to criticism, particularly given the company’s previous statement to Korea’s Personal Information Protection Commission, in which it claimed to value the Korean market and its compliance with local regulations.
“DeepSeek has sent a positive message indicating that it considers the Korean market important and intends to comply with Korean law,” Ko Hak-soo, chair of Korea’s Personal Information Protection Commission, said at a press briefing on Thursday.
“Rather than trying to ignore Korean users, it is likely that DeepSeek did not feel the need to create a separate privacy policy in Korean because, despite the country’s smaller market size compared to Japan, a significant number of customers had already entered the market, making the market (in Korea) already seem complete,” said an industry source, who asked for anonymity.
The PIPC has not yet determined the official number of DeepSeek app downloads here so far. Meanwhile, despite PIPC discussions that led to a temporary suspension of DeepSeek’s app services in Korea, hundreds of new downloads continue to be recorded daily.
DeepSeek app was installed 5,820 times in Korea between Feb. 16 and March 15, following the suspension of its service, according to the mobile index data from industry tracker IGAWorks. During the cited period, the app’s daily active users here reached about 52,000, averaging nearly 19,000 users per day.
Experts highlight ongoing risks associated with Korean users’ data protection and urge prompt regulatory action.
“If DeepSeek genuinely intends to comply with Korea’s Personal Information Protection Act, it must promptly establish a privacy policy for Korean users at a level comparable to those for European countries,” said Yom Heung-yeol, professor emeritus of cybersecurity at Soonchunhyang University.
“The policy should explicitly state that any data collected from Korean users will be processed exclusively within the country,” the expert added.