ChatGPT available to users in Italy a month after temporary ban

Maker Open AI and Italian authorities confirm that the chatbot is back online in the country.

Access to the ChatGPT chatbot has been restored in Italy after its maker, OpenAI, “addressed or clarified” issues raised by Italy’s data protection authority, Italian authorities and OpenAI said.

Microsoft Corp-backed OpenAI took ChatGPT offline in Italy last month after the country’s data protection authority, also known as Garante, temporarily banned the chatbot and launched an investigation into the artificial intelligence application’s suspected privacy violation.

The Italian data protection authority described its action as provisional “until ChatGPT respects privacy”.

The watchdog said ChatGPT developer OpenAI had no legal basis to justify “the massive collection and storage of personal data for the purpose of ‘training’ the algorithms that underpin the operation of the platform”.

It further referenced a March 20 data breach when user conversations and payment information were compromised, an issue the US company blamed on a bug.

Garante had also accused OpenAI of not checking the age of ChatGPT users who are believed to be 13 or older. OpenAI said it will provide a tool to verify the age of users in Italy upon sign-up.

The company said it will give more visibility to its privacy policy and user content opt-out form.

It will also provide a new form for users in the European Union to exercise their right to object to the use of personal data to train their models, a company spokesperson said.

Garante confirmed on Friday that the chatbot was back online in the country, adding that it was continuing its investigation into OpenAI.

The watchdog welcomed the steps taken so far to address its concerns and said it hoped OpenAI would comply with further requests, particularly regarding age verification and informing Italians about the use of their data.