(Finance) – “Welcome back, Italy! We are happy to resume offerings Chat GPT in Italy”. This is the message that from today appears when accessing the site of the application managed by US company OpenAI. “ChatGpt is available again for users in Italy. We are thrilled to welcome them back and remain committed to protecting their privacy. We have met or clarified the issues raised by the Guarantor” explained a company spokesperson in an official communication to a few days from the final deadline, April 30, set by Italian Privacy Guarantor. “We have addressed or clarified the issues raised by the Ombudsman – added the spokesperson – including new information on the Help Center and how we collect and use data; greater visibility of our Privacy Policy on the OpenAI homepage and on the login page of ChatGpt. Increased visibility of our user content opt-out module in Help Center articles and Privacy Policy.”
On March 31, the Authority announced the start of ainvestigation, after noting, among other things, the lack of information to users and all interested parties whose data was collected by OpenAI, but above all the absence of a legal basis to justify the massive collection and conservation of personal data. Then on April 11th he had sent a series of company requirements.
“We continue to offer our response process to emails and email privacy requests,” the statement said. Open AI – as well as a new form for EU users to exercise their right to object to our use of personal data to power our templates. And a tool to verify the age of users in Italy at the time of registration. We appreciate the cooperation of the Ombudsman and look forward to continuing the ongoing discussions”.
“OpenAI, the company that manages ChatGPT, has sent a note in which it illustrates the measures introduced in compliance with the requests of the Authority contained in the provision of last April 11, explaining that it has made available to European users and non-users and, in some cases, even outside Europe, a series of additional information, to have modified and clarified some points and recognized accessible solutions for users and non-users for the exercise of their rights” explains the Privacy Guarantor. It is in the light of these improvements that OpenAI was able to make ChatGPT accessible again in Italy.
The list of measures decided by OpenAI – OpenAI, the Guarantor announced, has implemented various measures. In detail: it has prepared and published on its website information aimed at all users and non-users, in Europe and in the rest of the world, to illustrate which personal data and how they are processed for the training of the algorithms and to remember that anyone has the right to object to such treatment; expanded the information on the processing of data reserved for users of the service, making it now also accessible in the registration mask before a user registers for the service; recognized to all people living in Europe, including non-users, the right to object to the processing of their personal data for the training of algorithms, including through a specific form that can be filled in online and is easily accessible; introduced a welcome screen for the reactivation of ChtaGPT in Italy, with references to the new privacy policy and the methods of processing personal data for algorithm training; has provided for the possibility for the interested parties to have the information deemed incorrect declaring themselves, at present, technically unable to correct the errors; has clarified, in the information reserved for users, that while it will continue to process certain personal data to ensure the correct functioning of the service on the basis of the contract, it will process their personal data for the purpose of training the algorithms, unless they exercise their right to object , on the basis of legitimate interest; has already implemented a form for users in recent days that allows all European users to exercise the right to object to the processing of their personal data and thus be able to exclude conversations and the related history from the training of their algorithms; has inserted a button on the welcome screen reserved for Italian users already registered to the service through which, in order to re-access the service, they must declare that they are of age or over thirteen and, in this case, that they have parental consent; has inserted the request for the date of birth in the service registration form, blocking registration for users under the age of thirteen and providing, in the hypothesis of users over the age of thirteen but minors, that they must confirm that they have parental consent to use the service.
The Authority expressed “satisfaction with the measures undertaken” hoping that OpenAI, in the coming weeks, will comply with the further requests imparted to her with the same provision of 11 April “with particular reference to the implementation of an age verification system and the planning and implementation of a communication campaign aimed at informing all Italians of what happened and of the possibility of opposing the use of their personal data for the purposes of algorithm training”. The Authority “recognizes the progress made to combine technological progress with respect for people’s rights and hopes that the company will continue along this path of adaptation to European legislation on data protection”. The Guarantor “will therefore continue with the preliminary investigation launched against OpenAI and with the work that will be carried out by the specific task force set up within the Committee that brings together the European Union’s privacy authorities”.