ChatGPT Back In Italy After Temporary Ban

OpenAI’s chatbot ChatGPT has been restored in Italy after the company addressed Italian data protection authority, also known as Garante, in a letter describing the measures it implemented in order to comply with the order issued in the country.

Garante had taken ChatGPT offline in Italy and launched probe over the artificial intelligence-powered chatbot for suspected breach of privacy rules.

“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,” Garante said in a statement.

The Italian data protection watchdog also acknowledged OpenAI’s expanded privacy policy for users and made it also accessible from the sign-up page prior to registration with the service. The ChatGPT-maker has granted all individuals in Europe, including non-users, the right to opt-out from processing of their data for training of algorithms also by way of an online, easily accessible ad-hoc form.

OpenAI has also implemented a form to enable all European users to opt-out from the processing of their personal data and thus to filter out their chats and chat history from the data used for training algorithms.

But Garante also mentioned in its statement that will continue with 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.

The Italian watchdog had given OpenAI a deadline till Sunday to address its concerns for allowing the chatbot to start operating again in the country.