OpenAI · The Information · Canada · ChatGPT · Engadget
Canadian officials claim OpenAI violated federal and provincial privacy laws
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Philippe Dufresne, the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, has found OpenAI was "not compliant with" Canadian federal and provincial privacy laws in the training of its AI models.
Key facts
- While Canada's investigation into OpenAI's privacy policies was opened in 2023, the company has received scrutiny from regulators more recently because of its connection to the mass shooting
- Philippe Dufresne, the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, has found OpenAI was "not compliant with" Canadian federal and provincial privacy laws in the training of its AI models
- Confirm to the Privacy Commissioners that it has implemented strong protection for future datasets that are retired, so they can't be used for active development
- OpenAI had reportedly flagged the alleged shooter's account in 2025 for containing warnings of real-world violence, but failed to escalate those concerns to Canadian law enforcement
Summary
The commissioners participating in the investigation identified multiple privacy issues with OpenAI's approach, including that the company "gathered vast amounts of personal information without adequate safeguards to prevent use of that information to train its models," and that it failed to acquire consent to collect and use that personal information in the first place. Canada's Privacy Commissioner contends that OpenAI was open and responsive to the investigation, and has already committed to making multiple changes to ChatGPT to follow Canadian privacy laws. Make its data exports tools easier to understand and use, and better explain how users can challenge the accuracy of the information ChatGPT provides.