More Canadian privacy authorities investigating ChatGPT's use of personal information

Federal and provincial pri‐ vacy authorities in Canada are pursuing a joint investi‐ gation into OpenAI, the company that makes Chat‐ GPT, after receiving a com‐ plaint about the firm's dis‐ closure of personal infor‐ mation.

A statement on Thursday said provincial authorities in Alberta, British Columbia and Quebec have joined the investigation launched by the Office of the Privacy Commis‐ sioner of Canada in April be‐ cause the issue affects people across the country.

"Given the broad scope and significant privacy impact of artificial intelligence and its relevance to all Canadians, the four offices have decided to jointly investigate the mat‐ ter," the statement read.

The complaint that sparked the investigation claimed the company unlaw‐ fully collected, used and dis‐ closed personal information without consent through ChatGPT, its artificial intelli‐ gence-powered chatbot.

The investigation will ex‐ amine whether OpenAI re‐ ceived "valid and meaningful" information-sharing consent from ChatGPT users based in Canada. It will also look at whether the company used information for unreasonable or illegitimate reasons.

The statement said privacy offices often work together on issues with nationwide im‐ plications because privacy laws in all four provinces are "substantially similar" to fed‐ eral legislation.

CBC News has contacted OpenAI for comment.

OpenAI is a Californiabased research and develop‐ ment firm co-founded by Elon Musk. Its backers include Mi‐ crosoft and billionaire entre‐ preneur Peter Thiel, who was one of the first outside in‐ vestors in Facebook.

ChatGPT is a program that has captivated users by gen‐ erating conversational, hu‐ man-like responses when users type in questions or tasks — from drafting awk‐ ward emails to writing com‐ plex computer code and and planning summer vaca‐ tions.

The cutting-edge software has drawn privacy and misin‐ formation concerns else‐ where since its launch in No‐ vember. Italy became the first country to temporarily ban the program by govern‐ ment order after its own data protection authority launched an investigation in April over the app's suspected breach of privacy rules.

'Toothpaste is out of the squeeze-tube'

Elected officials and ex‐ perts said Thursday that gov‐ ernments need to take urgent action to protect Canadi‐ ans' data before the investiga‐ tion is complete.

B.C. Citizens' Services Min‐ ister Lisa Beare says British Columbians deserve the con‐ fidence of knowing their data is being protected as artificial intelligence proliferates.

"We're eager to see the re‐ sults of that investigation and are open to discussions about how we can best complement the work that the privacy commissioners are doing across the country," Beare said in an emailed statement to CBC News.

Federal Innovation Minis‐ ter François-Philippe Cham‐ pagne said Canada is leading the way for data security amid "tremendous change in the AI landscape" and urged the passaged of Bill C-27 to create a digital charter for Canadians.

"We realized months ago that we need to protect Cana‐ dians with respect to their da‐ ta," Champagne said in an un‐ related news conference in Vancouver on Thursday.

But some legislators and experts say authorities in Canada still aren't doing enough to protect citizens' data from misuse and ex‐ ploitation.

B.C. has already acted too late to prevent many data breaches but it can still be proactive with the new chal‐ lenges posed by artificial intel‐ ligence, said Jason Woywada, executive director of the B.C. Freedom of Information and Privacy Association.

"It's great to see this type of investigation taking place," he told CBC News on Thursday. "The issue here is that... we are again chasing an issue after the toothpaste is out of the squeeze-tube."

B.C. Green Party MLA Adam Olsen is calling on the province to launch an all-par‐ ty task force to issue recom‐ mendations before the inves‐ tigation into OpenAI is con‐ cluded.

"We have information and privacy laws that are outdat‐

ed and reactive rather than proactive," said Olsen.

ChatGPT is not available in China, Iran, North Korea or Russia because OpenAI did not make it accessible in those countries.