- By Ashish Singh
- Fri, 31 Mar 2023 06:56 PM (IST)
- Source:JND
MICROSOFT-backed ChatGPT which has become the talk of the town seems to be in trouble as the Italian authorities have imposed an immediate block on the in-trend AI chatbot due to data privacy violations.
In a press release shared on the official website of the Italian DPA (Data Protection Authority), the authorities questioned the chatbot developer comapny OpenAI about privacy concerns, and it has also asked the users to stop processing the data of Italian users.
“The Guarantor for the Protection of Personal Data has ordered that the processing of data of Italian users be temporarily limited against OpenAI, the US company that developed and manages the platform, with immediate effect. Simultaneously, the Authority launched an investigation,” announced the authorities in the press release.
Additionally, the press release highlighted that the application has experienced a data breach involving user conversations and payment information. Furthermore, the press release also mentioned that there was no legal basis to justify the mass collection of data and no way to verify the age of users.
Lastly, under the threat of a 20 million euro ($21.7 million) fine or up to 4% of annual revenues, the authorities have asked the companies to respond in 20 days regarding how they would address the privacy issues.
It's interesting to note that the ban on ChatGPT in Italy comes just a few days after the European law enforcement organisation Europol issued a warning that fraudsters and other cybercriminals, including phishing and malware, were planning to use the app.
Meanwhile, the company has also unveiled the GPT 4, a new language model that is faster and smarter in terms of the tasks that are available to it.