Italy’s privacy authority deems OpenAI’s response sufficient to allow it back into the Italian market.
Italy’s privacy regulator, the Garante dei Dati Personali (“Garante”), has agreed to remove the temporary ban it had imposed on OpenAI’s ChatGPT chatbot, the agency has confirmed to Reuters. The move follows a formal response from OpenAI that sufficiently addresses the Garante’s concerns about the generative AI-powered service.
Italy was the first European data protection agency to take direct action to curb the activities of ChatGPT. Authorities claimed that the service’s use of personal information for its training constituted a breach of the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). In addition, the Garante said that the chatbot had no process for assuring that users were at least 13 years old.
OpenAI response addresses all the main issues
In response to the Garante’s charges, OpenAI said on Friday it will “provide greater visibility of its privacy policy and user content opt-out form”, according to Reuters. It will also address the GDPR-related concerns by providing a new form for users in the EU to exercise their right to object to its use of personal data to train its models.
Finally, OpenAI said it will offer a tool to verify users’ ages in Italy upon sign-up.
The Italian ban had triggered a wave of discussions in other EU countries. Some members, such as Spain, were also concerned about the dangers posed by the generative AI platform, whereas other members such as France and Ireland came out against bans such as the one imposed in Italy.
Earlier this month, the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) set up a task force on the chatbot in response to the concerns of some of its member nations. The resolution in Italy will no doubt have an impact on the EDPB’s discussions, and will likely also influence the final drafting of the proposed EU AI Act, which has been in the works for the past two years.
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