The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada has launched an investigation into OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
OPC launches investigation into ChatGPT. https://t.co/1TdT8uQ6ag pic.twitter.com/WOwd1HJXLp
— OPC (@PrivacyPrivee) April 4, 2023
“Artificial intelligence technologies and their impact on privacy are a priority for my department,” said Privacy Commissioner Philippe Dufren.
The supervisory body launched the investigation after receiving a complaint that the software allegedly collected, used, and disclosed personal information without users’ consent.
“As this is an ongoing investigation, there are no further details at the moment,” the agency said.
Over the past week, more countries have expressed concern about privacy risks arising from the technology. At the end of March, Italy became the first country to launch an investigation into ChatGPT.
Authorities intend to determine the legality of collecting citizens’ personal data and the potential harm the chatbot could pose to minors. At the time of the probe, regulators had ordered the tool to be blocked within the country.
Following Italy, regulators in the United Kingdom, Germany and Spain allowed similar measures.
Regulators have not disclosed what confidential information is being referred to. The language model used in ChatGPT is trained on publicly available data from the internet.
Yet users can themselves share personal information with the chatbot. OpenAI does not disclose how such data is used.
Some companies, such as Amazon warned employees not to share confidential information with ChatGPT, for example by pasting snippets of code.
Concerns about data leakage intensified after Redis library errors exposed some user data to third parties.
In March, a technology ethics group urged the U.S. Federal Trade Commission to conduct an investigation into OpenAI. The company has been accused of violating trade laws.