Italian Data Protection Authority Investigates Collection of Personal Data for AI

ChatGPT was banned in Italy for allegedly utilizing personal data. (photo: doc. pexels)

JAKARTA - Italy's data protection authority has initiated a fact-finding investigation into the practice of collecting large amounts of personal data online for use in training artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms. This was announced by the country's digital regulator on Wednesday, November 22.

This legal guardian is one of the most proactive of the 31 national data protection authorities in assessing AI platforms' compliance with the European data privacy regime known as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

At the start of this year, regulators briefly banned popular chatbot ChatGPT from operating in Italy over alleged violations of privacy rules.

On Wednesday, Italian authorities said the review aimed to assess whether online websites put in place "adequate measures" to prevent AI platforms from collecting large amounts of personal data for algorithms, also known as data scraping.

"After a fact-finding investigation, the Authority reserves the right to take necessary steps, also in cases of urgency," the regulator said. However, no company was specifically mentioned in the statement.

Italy invited academics, AI experts and consumer groups to participate in this fact-finding process, to share their views or comments over a 60-day period.

Several countries are already looking for ways to regulate AI. European legislators have stepped in by drafting regulations aimed at setting global standards for a technology that is key to almost every industry and business. The draft regulations will be approved next month.

France, Germany and Italy have reached an agreement on how AI should be regulated, which is expected to speed up negotiations at European level.