Friday’s announcement by Italy’s data protection authority and OpenAI restarted the ChatGPT chatbot. OpenAI, supported by Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O), pulled ChatGPT down in Italy last month after Garante, Italy’s data protection regulator, temporarily banned the chatbot and opened an inquiry into its possible privacy violations.
Garante gave OpenAI till Sunday to address its concerns before restarting the chatbot in the nation.
Last month, Garante stated ChatGPT had an “absence of any legal basis that justifies the massive collection and storage of personal data” to “train” the chatbot.
OpenAI stated it would provide a mechanism to validate Italian users’ ages upon sign-up after Garante accused it of neglecting to verify ChatGPT’s 13-year-old users’ ages. On Friday, the firm said its privacy policy and user content opt-out form would be more visible.
A business spokesman said it would also create a new form for European Union customers to express their right to object to its use of personal data to train its algorithms.
Opting out needs precise personal information and verification of data processing via relevant questions. Garante applauds the company’s efforts to balance technical advancement with human rights and hopes it will continue to comply with European data protection laws.
Italy was the first Western European nation to regulate ChatGPT, but its fast growth has caught the attention of politicians and authorities in numerous nations.
On Thursday, a European Union committee voted to require firms using generative AI tools like ChatGPT to reveal copyrighted content used to construct such systems.
The European Data Protection Board, which unifies Europe’s national privacy watchdogs, created a ChatGPT task group last month after Garante’s interest. Garante will investigate ChatGPT with the special task team.
