Seoul, April 24 -- Chinese generative AI platform DeepSeek passed on personal details of Korean users to firms in China and the United States without obtaining proper consent during its short operation in South Korea, as stated by the country's data protection authority on Thursday, according to a report from Radio Free Asia (RFA).

DeepSeek's chatbot application became the most popular download on Apple's iPhone, even outpacing OpenAI's ChatGPT. While it gained recognition for its performance, it also raised alarms regarding censorship of sensitive subjects, data privacy issues, and its connections to the Chinese government, leading several nations, including South Korea, to ban the app, as reported by RFA.

Between January 15 and Februa...