Commissioners from four of Canada’s privacy watchdogs have found that OpenAI violated Canadian privacy laws while developing and training early models of its large language model, ChatGPT.
In a news conference on Wednesday morning, Philippe Dufresne, the privacy commissioner of Canada, was joined by his provincial counterparts from British Columbia, Alberta, and Quebec to deliver the findings of each office’s investigation into the AI company. The commissioners said that OpenAI had violated various Canadian privacy laws by scraping Canadians’ personal data from sources including social media, blog posts, news articles, and elsewhere. That data, which included sensitive and personal data, was then used to train and develop some of OpenAI’s early AI models.
In doing so, commissioners said that the tech giant violated privacy laws related to obtaining consent as laid out in the federal Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA), and its provincial counterparts.
PIPEDA regulates how businesses collect, use, or disclose personal information during commercial activity, and requires organizations to obtain consent for data collection, among other stipulations.
Dufresne said that OpenAI has engaged in good faith with the investigation and has been working to address the concerns. He said the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada considers the complaint “valid, but conditionally resolved.”
While commissioners found fault in OpenAI’s methods, it also cited the need for changes to Canada’s existing privacy laws to meet the requirements of the digital age. Specifically, commissioners cited the challenges that AI and the internet broadly pose in meeting consent requirements as currently legislated.
The privacy investigation was launched in 2023, well before OpenAI came under scrutiny in Canada following a deadly mass shooting in Tumbler Ridge, BC, in February. Families of the victims of that shooting are taking OpenAI to court; the company had banned the shooter’s account for “disturbing content,” yet the company did not notify law enforcement.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates as more information becomes available.
BetaKit’s Prairies reporting is funded in part by YEGAF, a not-for-profit dedicated to amplifying business stories in Alberta.
Feature image courtesy TechCrunch. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0).
The post Federal and provincial privacy watchdogs say OpenAI violated Canadian privacy laws first appeared on BetaKit.
