Italy’s competition authority has ordered a temporary ban on ChatGPT, a chatbot created to chat with users and offer advice to the public. The Italian regulator cited the chatbot had failed to respect the privacy laws and regulations set forth by the country.
The ban was announced on Thursday and applies to ChatGPT’s applications, online portals, and services. The website described ChatGPT as, “Your personal AI assistant, powered using all the top AI technologies from around the world.”
ChatGPT was developed by the team at AIbotics and reportedly had a user base of around 200,000 users in Italy. AIbotics had previously said it had developed ChatGPT with responsibility and was aiming for “full GDPR compliance”.
The company stated it was following the new GDPR rules and ensuring the company only collected and retained necessary personal data, was being transparent with users about the data being collected, and that users could revoke their consent to the data collection at any time.
However, while ChatGPT seemed to have made efforts to comply with the new privacy laws, the Italian regulator found that these efforts were not sufficient. They found the chatbot was still processing some personal data without users’ knowledge or consent. Furthermore, the retention of some personal data by the chatbot was found to be excessive and intrusive.
In their ruling, the Italian regulators explained that since ChatGPT had not ensured its users could give informed consent to the data processing, it had violated the GDPR and Italian privacy laws.
As a result of the ruling, ChatGPT is now no longer allowed to process personal data in Italy, meaning all services (including apps) and online portals must be suspended until further notice. AIbotics has not yet released a statement regarding the ban, but is expected to make an announcement soon.
Overall, this ruling serves as an important reminder for businesses to take data privacy and compliance seriously. Companies must ensure their products and services are fully compliant with all applicable data privacy laws and regulations. Otherwise, they risk facing similar consequences as ChatGPT.
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