(Finance) – The Guarantor for the protection of personal data has ordered, with immediate effect, the temporary limitation of the processing of data of Italian users towards OpenAI, the US company that developed and manages the platform Chat GPT, the AI-powered chatbot model. The stop has been ordered until Open AI complies with the privacy regulations. The Authority has also opened an investigation.
In the provision, the Guarantor noted the lack of information addressed to users and all interested parties, whose data is collected by OpenAI, but above all the absence of a legal basis that justifies the collection and the storage massive of personal data, in order to “train” the algorithms underlying the functioning of the platform. As testified by the checks carried out, the information provided by ChatGPT does not always correspond to the real data, thus determining an inaccurate treatment of personal data. Furthermore, the Authority stressed that the service, despite being aimed at people over the age of 13, does not envisage any filter that verifies theage of users exposing minors to responses that are “absolutely unsuitable for their degree of development and self-awareness”.
OpenAI does not have an office in the EU but has designated a representative in the European Economic Area who must communicate within 20 days the measures undertaken in implementation of what is requested by the Guarantor, under penalty of sanction until 20 million euros or up to 4% of annual global turnover.
On March 20, ChatGPT had suffered a data loss regarding the conversations of users and information relating to payment of paid service subscribers.