The government has confirmed that the Chinese artificial intelligence service DeepSeek handed over its users’ personal information to another Chinese company without consent. 

The Personal Information Protection Commission announced on Tuesday that it confirmed that DeepSeek user information was leaked to TikTok’s parent company, the Chinese IT firm ByteDance.

The government is investigating whether any sensitive personal information was included and speculates that information on South Koreans was among the data DeepSeek shared. 

The government is also looking into the possibility that DeepSeek shared such data with other Chinese firms.

South Korean law prohibits companies from providing personal information to third parties without consent. 

The commission has temporarily suspended new downloads of DeepSeek in South Korea.