The logo of DeepSeek is displayed alongside its artificial intelligence assistant app on a mobile phone in this illustration picture taken, Jan. 28. Reuters-Yonhap

Major conglomerates in Korea are on track to block access to DeepSeek's artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot service amid escalating concerns over potential leaks of their confidential data to China, industry officials said Friday.

The decision follows a similar move by the government, as global authorities increase scrutiny over the Chinese startup's service due to fears of data breaches.

Hyundai Motor Group joined the bandwagon on Friday, preventing its affiliates from using the service for security reasons. The group notified its employees and executives of the decision for a similar reason. Under the latest measure, officials from the group's key affiliates, such as Hyundai Motor, Kia, Hyundai Mobis and Hyundai Glovis, are restricted from connecting to the Chinese platform.

Employees from other major tech firms here — such as Samsung Electronics, LG Electronics and SK hynix — are also not allowed to use DeepSeek's R1 AI model on their laptops and desktops.

Industry officials said conglomerates here will keep maintaining the policy until fears of data leaks from DeepSeek are fully resolved.

"The move is part of our preemptive actions against potential data leaks to China," an official from the IT industry said. "We will keep implementing the policy by monitoring movement from our overseas counterparts."

Financial firms also joined the list of companies blocking access to R1. Korea's four major banking groups — KB, Shinhan, Hana and Woori — have recently prohibited employees from accessing DeepSeek's service in their corporate network systems. Toss Bank and KakaoBank — two major internet-only banks here, took the same measure.

Key government authorities, such as the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, have taken a more agile approach by preemptively blocking access to R1 online.

The National Assembly is moving to build a legal basis for such actions.

Rep. Na Kyung-won of the ruling People Power Party proposed a bill to block access to R1 from major government authorities and state-run organizations.

"DeepSeek secured more than 1.2 million Korean users with its free service launched last month, but the problem is that [there is no knowledge of] how their data is processed at servers in China," she said.

Telecommunications and information technology industry players cut off network access to R1, as the possibility of a data leak can cause mass damage to the public. SK Telecom and LG Uplus advised its staff not to access the Chinese platform even with their personal computers. Naver and Kakao also made it a rule not to use any external AI services in their work.