ChatGPT is once again available in Italy after a temporary ban
OpenAI has announced that its chatbot, ChatGPT, is now accessible to its users in Italy. This comes after Italian regulators blocked ChatGPT in March, citing concerns that the AI's training techniques and chatbot violated the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
In order to lift the temporary ban, the Garante data protection authority set out several conditions that OpenAI had to comply with. This included making sure there was a privacy disclosure on the website that detailed how data is collected and used, offering a form through which EU users could object to having their data used for training purposes, adding an age verification system, and implementing an opt-out feature for users who did not want their chat histories to be used for training purposes.
OpenAI has since added privacy controls to ChatGPT, and users in Italy are now seeing a pop-up that asks them to confirm that they are aged at least 18 or have a parent's or guardian's consent to use ChatGPT if they are between 13 and 17. Users can also switch off their chat histories to prevent OpenAI from using that data for training purposes.
The Italian data protection authority has welcomed the measures that OpenAI has implemented, but has urged the company to follow through on other demands that the Garante has made, particularly with regard to planning and conducting an information campaign to inform Italians of what happened and of their right to opt-out from the processing of their personal data for training algorithms.
OpenAI has stated that it remains dedicated to protecting its users' privacy, and it is hoped that it will continue to comply with the GDPR.
