OpenAI has taken ChatGPT offline in Italy after being banned by the Italian Data Protection Authority

OpenAI has taken ChatGPT offline in Italy, after Italian data protection agency Garante temporarily banned the chatbot on March 31 and launched an investigation into its alleged violation of privacy rules, Jinten reported. Garante, the Italian Data Protection Agency, believes that on March 20, the ChatGPT platform lost user conversation data and payment service payment information. In addition, the platform has not informed about the collection and processing of user information, and there is no legal basis for collecting and storing a large amount of personal information. OpenAI must inform the Italian Data Protection Agency, through its representatives in Europe, of the steps the company has taken to implement the agency’s request within 20 days, or face a fine of up to 20 million euros or 4% of the company’s annual global turnover. OpenAI said it had disabled ChatGPT for Italian users at Garante's request.