Italy's privacy watchdog on Monday served OpenAI, the US company that runs the artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot ChatGPT, with an official notification of complaint for allegedly violating Italian personal data protection regulations and standards.
The move comes at the end of a preliminary investigation launched in March 2023, when the personal data protection authority also suspended ChatGPT in Italy on grounds it was allegedly illegally harvesting Italians' personal data.
OpenAI now has 30 days to share its defense briefs regarding the alleged violations.
In its measure temporarily halting ChatGPT last March, the privacy authority cited a failure to inform users and all those whose data were gathered by OpenAI, and also, above all, the absence of a juridical basis justifying the data harvesting and the massive storage of personal data.
The authority subsequently lifted the restrictions the following April, after OpenAI agreed to provide more transparency and rights for users.
In a statement issued at the time, the privacy authority said:"OpenAI, the company that manages ChatGPT, sent a note in which it illustrates the measures introduced in compliance with theAuthority's requests contained in the measure of 11 April last, explaining that it has made a series of additional information available to European users and non-users and, in some cases, also non-European users, and that it has modified and clarified some points and recognized accessible solutions for users and non-users to exercise their rights".
However, following an investigation the watchdog claims the elements that have emerged may constitute one or more offenses under EU rules.
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