ChatGPT blocked in Italy? We explain how to continue using it

Just a few hours ago, news broke that the popular generative AI service developed by OpenAI, called ChatGPT, has been blocked in Italy for a series of problems relating to user privacy. The Guarantor for the protection of personal data sanctioned the stop of the service with immediate effect and the underlying reasons were well described in our article written last day, as soon as the decision began to have international resonance.

Here we don’t want to dwell on questions that will be dealt with extensively in the next few days, but rather to answer two of the questions that many of you are asking yourself in these hours. Is it possible to continue using the chatbot despite the lockdown in Italy? And what about ChatGPT Plus subscribers, what about the money spent? Let’s start with the first question and then tackle the second in turn.

The answer is yes and the easiest way to get around the block is to use any VPN. Without a VPN, the portal returns a message certifying the impossibility of using the service, while on Bing Chat only related search results are displayed instead of the well-known chat window.

Once a VPN is installed and configured, the first thing to do will be set any country for the localization, obviously except Italy. This step proves to be necessary to deceive the localization and simulate our presence outside the Italian borders. This way you will be able to see the chatbot home screen again and also the version integrated into Microsoft’s Bing Chat, exactly as it was before the block.

In case you don’t know which proposal to choose among the many available on the markets, we at HDblog recommend NORDVPN, one of the most widespread and secure that you can reach to register via the following link.

In this regard, the review of the service described above that we created at the end of 2022, which you can read at this link, could also be useful. We now turn to the second question.

We come to the second part, the most painful if we consider the cost of the subscription stipulated by many users to use the advanced and faster version of the generative artificial intelligence service. Who paid for the subscription, lost their money or is there any solution? Also in this case we can give you good news.

OpenAI itself, following the confirmation of the blockade in Italy, published an announcement that reassures everyone and which we report translated below. OpenAI confirms both the arrival of refunds to those who paid for the subscription, and the temporary blocking of the activation of new subscriptions.

Dear ChatGPT customer, we are sorry to inform you that we have disabled ChatGPT for users in Italy as requested by the Italian Guarantor. We are issuing refunds to all users in Italy who purchased a ChatGPT Plus subscription during the month of March. We are also temporarily suspending subscription renewals in Italy so that users are not charged while ChatGPT is suspended. We are committed to protecting people’s privacy and believe that we offer ChatGPT in compliance with GDPR and other privacy laws. We will contact the Guarantor with the aim of restoring your access as soon as possible. Many of you have told us that you find ChatGPT useful for day-to-day tasks and we look forward to making it available again soon. If you have any questions or concerns regarding ChatGPT or the refund process, we have prepared a list of FAQs to resolve them.

In this regard, we leave you at the FAQ link mentioned in the text of the message, where many details are explained, including the terms of the refund. ChatGPT lets you know that the money will be reloaded to the original payment method within 5-7 daysbut the operation will be launched immediately and we cannot exclude that everything will materialize in less time.