Edit 28/04/2023. ChatGPT reopens in Italy, after working on what is requested by the Privacy Guarantor:
- More prominently exposed privacy policies
- filter by age of the user
- Possibility for European users to deny the pruits given to the algorithm
- Possibility to have incorrect information about your account deleted
01/04/2023. The Italian SA (guarantor for the protection of personal data) has intervened and, for Italian users, ChatGPT is blocked.
It is hoped that the situation will be temporary, at least until OpenAI, the American company that manages ChatGPT, now blocked, does not make the chat compliant with the legislation for the processing of personal data.
The Italian Privacy Guarantor contest in Openai the illegal collection of personal data and the absence of a system to verify the age of minors.
In addition, the Guarantor started an investigation into the case. Chatgpt, now disabled in Italy, has undergone a violation of user data (Data Breach) on March 20, including conversations and payment information of subscribers.
The Guarantor has been lacking in an adequate information for users and the absence of a legal justification for the collection and massive conservation of personal data, in particular to train the platform's algorithms.
In addition, the Privacy Guarantor has reported the lack of a filter to verify the age of users, which could display minors to inappropriate responses. Openii must respond to the requests of the guarantor within 20 days, otherwise risks a penalty of up to 20 million euros or up to 4% of the annual turnover.
Following all these requests, Openai preferred to disable access for Italian customers, even the paying ones, which will be reimbursed. However, OpenAI would do well to make itself compliant with the legislation. Although the dispute came from the Italian Privacy Guarantor, the GDPR privacy legislation is European and it cannot be excluded that other states raise similar disputes.
How to use ChatGPT anyway
In the meantime that the law will take its course, many Italian users are continuing to use ChatGPT by connecting via VPN. There are many VPN services that have free monthly plans of up to a few GB of usage.
In choosing an VPN provider, pay attention to its reputation: to use a VPN, you need to install a software on your computer. If this were malicious ... everything could happen to you!
When you set the VPN, you have to select an IP address that has an external position to Italy.
Some information about the OpenAI company
"OpenAI è un'organizzazione non a scopo di lucro fondata da Elon Musk, Sam Altman, Greg Brockman, Ilya Sutskever, Wojciech Zaremba e altri. L'obiettivo di OpenAI è sviluppare tecnologie avanzate di intelligenza artificiale in modo responsabile e condividerle con il mondo per promuovere il progresso scientifico e sociale."
In short, behind Chatgpt there is also some known names!