October 6th 2023.
The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) in Britain said on Friday that Snapchat may have failed to properly assess the privacy risks to children from its artificial intelligence chatbot, “My AI”. If the U.S. company fails to address the ICO's concerns, the regulator will consider banning the chatbot in the UK.
ICO Commissioner John Edwards said, “The provisional findings of our investigation suggest a worrying failure by Snap to adequately identify and assess the privacy risks to children and other users before launching ‘My AI’.” This does not necessarily mean that the instant messaging app has violated British data protection laws.
Snapchat responded by stating that “My AI” went through a comprehensive legal and privacy review process before being released to the public. They also mentioned that they will be cooperating with the ICO to ensure they are comfortable with the company's risk assessment procedures.
The ICO is currently looking into how “My AI” processes the personal data of Snapchat's approximately 21 million UK users, which includes children aged 13-17. This is of particular concern due to the generative AI technology by OpenAI’s ChatGPT, which governments around the world are attempting to regulate in light of safety and privacy issues.
Social media platforms such as Snapchat require users to be over the age of thirteen. However, the regulator is examining if Snapchat is doing enough to prevent underage users from accessing their platform. Reuters reported in August that the ICO was collecting data to make this determination.
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