Italy: Issued provisional order banning Luka/Replika from processing Italian users' data

On 2 February 2023, the Italian Data Protection Agency (DPA) issued a provisional order banning Luka, the developer and operator of the Artificial Intelligence-powered chatbot Replika, from processing the personal data of Italian users. The United States based developer, Luka, has been ordered to temporarily stop the processing of Italian users' data and inform the Agency of the measures taken to implement the order within 20 days. The order was issued following an investigation conducted by the DPA into Luka's data processing activities, which found that the chatbot Replika poses significant risks to children and emotionally-vulnerable individuals through inappropriate chatbot replies. The DPA noted that Luka failed to implement appropriate age verification or blocking mechanisms for its chatbot Replika and required it to update its policies and enact measures to protect children under 13 years old.