According to the Italian data protection watchdog, Garante per la Protezione dei Dati Personali (Garante), OpenAI's ChatGPT service has been temporarily banned in the country due to data protection concerns. The ban means that the company must stop processing users' data with immediate effect. The investigation will look into whether the company has unlawfully processed such data in violation of the E.U. General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) laws. Garante noted that "No information is provided to users and data subjects whose data are collected by Open AI." This lack of transparency is concerning, especially given the large amount of data that the company collects. It's estimated that ChatGPT has reached over 100 million monthly active users since its release late last year. Another concern is that ChatGPT does not have an age verification system, which could expose minors to "inappropriate" responses. In contrast, Google's chatbot, Bard, is only open to users over the age of 18. This ban is a reminder that companies must be careful when collecting and processing data, especially when that data belongs to children.