The Italian Data Protection Authority (Garante per la protezione dei dati personali) has imposed sanctions on OpenAI due to violations of data protection laws related to the ChatGPT chatbot.
OpenAI is required to pay a fine of €15 million (approximately $15.6 million) and undertake a six-month public awareness initiative throughout Italian media. This campaign aims to inform the public about the operations of ChatGPT, particularly concerning the data collection practices involving both users and non-users for algorithm training.
The penalty was prompted by OpenAI’s failure to inform the Italian authority about a data breach that occurred in March 2023, which led to an investigation into how the developer of ChatGPT managed personal data.
The investigation revealed that OpenAI had processed users’ data for the purpose of training ChatGPT without establishing a suitable legal basis beforehand, thereby breaching the principle of transparency and failing to fulfill related information obligations toward users.
Additionally, the company has been criticized for lacking mechanisms to verify user age, which poses a risk of exposing children under 13 to inappropriate content related to their developmental stage and self-awareness.
The amount of the fine was determined by considering the company’s cooperative attitude during the investigation, according to the regulatory body.
The Italian Data Protection Authority has also sent procedural documents to the Irish Data Protection Authority (DPC), which is the lead supervisory body under the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The DPC will continue to investigate any ongoing violations that have not been resolved prior to the establishment of OpenAI’s European headquarters.
This announcement follows the European Data Protection Board’s (EDPB) recent publication of its opinion regarding the utilization of personal data for the creation and application of AI models.
Read now: Italy’s Privacy Watchdog Blocks ChatGPT Amid Privacy Concerns
Based on an article from infosecurity-magazine.com: https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/italy-15m-fine-to-openai-chatgpt/
