This Friday, Italy has ordered the blocking with immediate effect of Openai's ChatGPT artificial intelligence tool, accusing it of not respecting the country's data protection law, Italy's GPDP (Guarantor for the Protection of Personal Data). ChatGPT is accused of the alleged unlawful collection of personal data and has therefore opened an investigation.

The country's national authority accuses the company of lacking a legal basis justifying the current "massive collection and storage of personal data to train ChatGPT algorithms." In this way, the access and use of this technology is limited in Italy while an investigation is opened towards the company that created the platform. This block is temporary but will not be lifted until OpenAI complies with the European General Data Protection Regulation.

In a statement published on Friday, the Italian data protection agency claims to have detected "the lack of information to users and all interested parties whose data is collected by OpenAI, but above all the absence of a legal basis that justifies the collection and mass storage of personal data, with the purpose of training the algorithms underlying the operation of the platform." details the statement.

They point out that the checks carried out and the information provided by ChatGPT do not always correspond to the actual data, thus determining an inaccurate treatment of the personal data of users who use the service. In addition, they also highlight that, although according to the terms published by OpenAI, the service is aimed at people over 13 years old, there is a total absence of any filter to verify the age of users. thus exposing minors to absolutely inadequate responses compared to their degree of development and self-awareness.

The statement also notes that ChatGPT suffered on March 20 a loss of data (data leakage) related to user conversations and information corresponding to the payment of subscribers of the payment service.

In particular, the body considers that this service infringes Articles 5, 6, 8, 13 and 25 of the Regulation. Thus ordering the blocking of the same and adding that in case of non-compliance with the measure ordered by the guarantor, the relevant criminal and administrative sanctions will be applied. Specifically, the agency speaks of a penalty of 20 million euros or up to 4% of the company's annual global turnover.

Any member country can take whatever measures it deems appropriate to protect its citizens, including the preventive blocking of the application of OpenAI, a US company that has no legal presence in Europe. For now, theblockade has only been activated in Italy and not in the rest of the member countries, unless their corresponding entities follow in the footsteps of the Mediterranean country. Similarly, Italy also obliges the company to communicate within a maximum period of 20 days what initiatives it has taken to comply with the conditions indicated by the agency before starting the sanctions process.

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