“Welcome back, Italy”. With this writing, which now appears to all users from Italy, ChatGPT announces the restoration of service in Italy. OpenAi’s hugely popular AI-based chatbot was blocked for about a month, starting April 1, 2023, due to concerns raised by the Privacy Guarantor.
In this period of time OpenAi said itself open to dialogue and confrontation with the Guarantor, and apparently this approach has paid off. The company had in fact had 30 days, which would have expired this Sunday, to make the necessary changes to the service, to make it compliant with the standards of the Italian authorities.
Below is an extract from the press release of the Privacy Guarantor (via Ansa):
“OpenAI has sent a note in which it illustrates the measures introduced in compliance with the requests of the Authority contained in last month’s provision, explaining that it has made available to users and non-European users and, in some cases, even non-Europeans, a series of additional information, to have modified and clarified some points and recognized accessible solutions for users and non-users to exercise their rights”
ChatGPT: “Welcome back, Italy!”
In addition to the writing that welcomes Italian users, the chatbot informs users about the new service policies. Specifically, which did not happen before, ChatGPT now asks users to confirm their age. Access to minors had been one of the critical issues highlighted by the Guarantor, which now seems to have been resolved.
The Guarantor also explained that OpenAi has provided greater transparency on the use of personal data collected during chats. Data which, as we well know, are used to “train” the chatbot itself.
Out of curiosity we asked ChatGPT why he had been away from Italy. His answer was: “I never left”.