ChatGPT service is now back in Italy

ChatGPT’s service is now available in Italy, a couple of days after OpenAI announced a set of privacy controls for the generative AI chatbot.

CEO Sam Altman tweeted about this stating that the company was excited that ChatGPT is available in again.

In March, Italy’s data protection authority, Garante, imposed a temporary ban on access to OpenAI’s widely-used artificial intelligence chatbot, ChatGPT, due to alleged privacy infringements. It was the first European country to impose such a ban on the popular AI chatbot. It also opened an investigation into the suspected breaches of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

The Italian data had criticised OpenAI of not showing ‘any legal basis that justifies the massive collection and storage of personal data’ to ‘train’ their chatbot. It also condemned the firm for failing to check the age of ChatGPT’s users who are supposed to be aged either 13 or above.

In a press release by Garante on the resumption of ChatGPT service in Italy, the body said OpenAI “sent a letter to the Italian SA describing the measures it implemented in order to comply with the order issued by the SA on 11 April.”

“OpenAI explained that it had expanded the information to European users and non-users, that it had amended and clarified several mechanisms and deployed amenable solutions to enable users and non-users to exercise their rights. Based on these improvements, OpenAI reinstated access to ChatGPT for Italian users.”

“The Italian SA welcomes the measures OpenAI implemented and calls upon the company to comply with the additional requests laid down in its 11 April order; this applies in particular to implementing an age verification system and planning and conducting an information campaign to inform Italians of what happened as well as of their right to opt-out from the processing of their personal data for training algorithms.”

“The Italian SA acknowledges the steps forward made by OpenAI to reconcile technological advancements with respect for the rights of individuals and it hopes that the company will continue in its efforts to comply with European data protection legislation.”

“The Italian SA will carry on its fact-finding activities regarding OpenAI also under the umbrella of the ad-hoc task force that was set up by the European Data Protection Board.”