Regulators in Poland have opened a case against OpenAI, according to an official announcement published on September 20.
Poland’s Office for the Protection of Personal Data said it is considering a complaint in which an individual objected to certain aspects of OpenAI’s popular ChatGPT app.
In the complaint in question, the individual user alleged that OpenAI handles data in an “illegal and unreliable manner” and without transparency. The complainant specifically said that ChatGPT answered a question by generating false information about him and complained that OpenAI did not correct that answer when requested.
Furthermore, the individual complained that he cannot determine which parts of his personal data have been processed by ChatGPT. The complainant also said that OpenAI has provided “evasive, misleading and internally contradictory responses” and generally lacks transparency regarding data processing principles.
Presumably, OpenAI should have complied with all data obligations and informed the complainant that it had collected its data when it started processing this data in 2021.
If these complaints are substantive, OpenAI’s shortcomings could violate the rules of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which guarantee data privacy.
The Data Protection Agency acknowledged that the case will be challenging for two reasons: first, because OpenAI is not based in the EU, and second, because the complaint concerns newly developed AI technology.
Various regulators are keeping OpenAI under scrutiny
The recent popularity of ChatGPT has led to numerous other investigations and actions against OpenAI, especially in the European Union (EU).
Italy briefly banned ChatGPT in April, but soon allowed the service to resume operations as the service adapted to requirements later that month. Also around that time, France reported receiving two complaints about OpenAI, while Spain asked EU privacy regulators to investigate privacy concerns related to ChatGPT.
Reports from April suggested that German regulators had also begun investigating OpenAI, although those investigations were limited to a single state in the country.
Outside the EU, Japanese regulators warned the company in June for collecting sensitive personal data in violation of the law. Several Canadian regulators also launched an investigation into OpenAI and ChatGPT in May.
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