OpenAI has unblocked access to ChatGPT in Italy after introducing several privacy-related changes, including making it clearer to European users about how they can delete their personal data from the chatbot program.
The company restored access nearly a month after the Italian Data Protection Authority demanded OpenAI stop collecting users’ personal information through the chatbot.
Italian regulators claimed ChatGPT was in potential violation of Europe's GDPR privacy law, which forces companies to properly disclose their data collection and storage practices to users. In response, OpenAI added new pages and forms to its website that offer more transparency about the data practices surrounding the popular chatbot.
“ChatGPT is available again to our users in Italy,” OpenAI said in a statement. “We are excited to welcome them back, and we remain dedicated to protecting their privacy. We have addressed or clarified the issues raised by the Garante (Italy’s privacy regulator).”
The changes include new help center articles that explain how OpenAI relies on user inputs to help improve ChatGPT's AI model. “We don’t use data for selling our services, advertising, or building profiles of people—we use data to make our models more helpful for people,” it says.
Still, one of the help articles says users in certain jurisdictions—which should include the EU— can “object to the processing of their personal information” by ChatGPT. The article then links to a form, where users can request ChatGPT to stop processing and delete their personal information from powering the AI models.
The same article also says users in certain jurisdictions can send an email to dsar@openai.com about correcting, restricting, or deleting any personal information that ends up in ChatGPT’s training data.
In addition, OpenAI says it added greater visibility to another form that can let users opt out from future data collection. Another change specific to Italy adds a pop-up on the ChatGPT homepage outlining OpenAI's privacy policies. That pop-up features a button, requesting the user confirm that they meet the age or parental requirements to access the AI program.
The Italian Data Protection Authority didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. But despite the changes to OpenAI’s website, various regulators in the European Union have signaled they’re looking closely at potentially regulating ChatGPT over concerns it could spread misinformation, infringe on user privacy, and be exploited for cybercrime.
As for the US market, users based in California can also request that OpenAI delete their personal information, under the state’s data protection law. Earlier this week, OpenAI added the option to turn off chat history for ChatGPT, which can stop the company from using your queries to improve the program.