OpenAI said it had met the requirements of Italian regulators, enabling ChatGPT to resume operations in Italy.
we’re excited chatgpt is available in ?? again!
— Sam Altman (@sama) April 28, 2023
“ChatGPT is now available for our users in Italy. We are pleased to welcome their return and remain committed to protecting privacy,” according to OpenAI’s statement to the Associated Press.
To address the regulator’s concerns, the developers added privacy controls to ChatGPT. The settings allow users to disable chat histories, preventing OpenAI from using them in training datasets.
According to TechCrunch, users in Italy now see a pop-up asking them to confirm they are of legal age. If a site visitor is between 13 and 17, they must provide parental or guardian consent to use ChatGPT.
The Italian data protection authority welcomed the measures implemented. However, the regulator urged the company to comply with additional requirements.
“This relates to the rollout of an age-check system, a campaign to inform Italians about what happened, and their right to opt out of data processing for training algorithms,” the statement said.
The supervisory authority hopes the startup will continue its efforts to comply with the GDPR.
“The Italian regulator will continue its fact-finding work regarding OpenAI, also under the aegis of a special task force created by the European Data Protection Board,” the conclusion states.
Back in late March, Italian authorities blocked ChatGPT due to possible data privacy violations.
The company was given 20 days to address the issue. Otherwise, it could be fined €20 million or 4% of annual turnover.
In April, several European regulators allowed the introduction of similar measures against the chatbot, while Canadian authorities launched a special probe.
In the same period, OpenAI proposed measures to address data privacy concerns that prompted the temporary ban of ChatGPT in Italy.