Last month the Italian Data Protection Authority (Garante per la protezione dei dati personali) announced a temporary ban on the processing of Italian users’ data by Open AI over multiple concerns relating to privacy.

Among the points raised:

• Lack of information to users and data subjects whose data are collected by Open AI

• Lack of a legal basis for the massive collection and processing of personal data in order to ‘train’ the algorithms

• Information made available does not always match factual circumstances, leading to the processing of inaccurate personal data

• Lack of age verification mechanism, exposing children to information that may be inappropriate to their age

Other European countries, including France, Spain and Germany have launched procedures to examine Open AI and assess its alignment with European data protection laws and principles.

In Canada, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner announced on April 3 the launch of an investigation into Open AI, responding to concerns on the collection, use and disclosure of personal information without consent.