OpenAI on Wednesday introduced data residency in Asia, allowing organisations operating in Japan, India, Singapore and South Korea to store data locally while using its products.
“With data residency, eligible API customers and new ChatGPT Enterprise and Edu customers can choose to have customer content stored at rest in supported countries,” said the company.
The data that can be stored includes users’ conversations with ChatGPT, which encompass prompts, uploaded files, and context across various mediums, such as text, images, and the vision modality.
“Data residency builds on OpenAI’s robust data privacy, security, and compliance features, which support hundreds of organisations partnering with OpenAI across Asia today—from start-ups and large enterprises to academic institutions—including Kakao, SoftBank, Grab, Singapore Airlines, and many more,” added the company.
OpenAI also mentioned that it is using AES-256 encryption for data at rest and TLS 1.2+ for data in transit between customers, service providers, and OpenAI. Essentially, these protocols ensure data confidentiality and security.
Furthermore, the company added that its data protection practices can support compliance with GDPR, CCPA, and other privacy laws, and adhere to the CSA STAR and SOC 2 Type 2 standards.
In February, it was reported that OpenAI has initiated discussions to set up data centre operations in India. Currently, most of Openai’s servers are based in data centres in Texas, United States, and the company relies on Microsoft’s Azure Cloud services to serve users globally, including India.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman visited India earlier this year and reiterated that India is the company’s second-largest market. Over the past year, the company has tripled its user base in India.
“I see people in India are building with AI at all levels of the stack – chips, models, you know, all of the incredible applications. So, I think India should be doing everything. I think India should be one of the leaders of the AI revolution,” Altman said during a fireside chat with IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw.
