On 6 May 2026, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (OPC), together with provincial privacy regulators from Québec, British Columbia, and Alberta, released the findings of a landmark joint investigation into OpenAI’s ChatGPT. The investigation assessed whether the collection, use, and disclosure of Canadians’ personal information in training and operating ChatGPT complied with federal and provincial privacy laws.
The regulators concluded that OpenAI’s initial deployment and training of ChatGPT did not meet applicable privacy requirements. Key issues identified included excessive collection of personal information from public sources, insufficient transparency regarding data usage, lack of valid user consent, and inadequate safeguards to ensure individuals could access, correct, or delete their personal data. The investigation also raised concerns about accountability and the risk of inaccurate or misleading outputs containing personal information.
Following regulatory engagement, OpenAI implemented corrective measures, including limiting the use of personal and sensitive data in model training, enhancing transparency disclosures, improving user rights mechanisms, and introducing stronger internal governance and retention controls. The company also committed to further improvements, including clearer notices to users, enhanced data handling practices, and expanded privacy safeguards for vulnerable groups.
The OPC concluded that, with these remedial actions and future commitments, the matter is considered “well-founded and conditionally resolved” under Canada’s federal private-sector privacy law (PIPEDA). However, regulators emphasized ongoing monitoring and reinforced the need for modernized privacy legislation to address emerging AI risks.
This decision signals increasing regulatory scrutiny of generative AI systems and reinforces global expectations around data governance, transparency, and responsible AI deployment.
Kindly refer to the following news release from OPC:
https://www.priv.gc.ca/en/opc-news/news-and-announcements/2026/nr-c_260506