Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, announced that it will soon begin using public user content, i.e. your posts and photos, to train its artificial intelligence models.
Many Instagram and Facebook users recently received a notification informing them that, as of June 26, the company will be enhancing its “AI at Meta experiences.” From that point on, posts, photos, and captions publicly shared by all users will be used to train Meta’s AI products and services, such as the Meta AI and AI Creative Tools. Meta guarantees that private messages will not be affected and will only use text and images to feed its AI models.
Users of the social media platforms are automatically opted in to accept the policy. While they have the option of opting out, Meta appears to have made the process intentionally difficult which has raised concerns on data protection and privacy.
Simon McGarr, a solicitor and director of Data Compliance Europe has voiced his objections to Meta’s approach:
“Currently they’re throwing up a consent form. But the consent form doesn’t say, ‘yes I approve’. It’s fill in this form if you don’t approve. So it’s an opt out form,” he said in a statement. “Unless you fill that in that you’ve consented to their legitimate interest use of your data. Now, I don’t think that’s valid because people’s data in Meta and Facebook is likely a mix of what is known and personal data and sensitive personal data.”
Some users also have varied opinions on Meta’s new policy.
X user Zuhair Sait conveys optimism about the potential benefits it may bring, “It’s interesting to see how @Meta @AIatMeta is leveraging publicly shared images from Instagram and Facebook for AI training. Understanding how our data is used to advance technology is crucial.”
Meanwhile, another X user, Tantacrul expressed his dismay on the many steps required to opt out. “It’s intentionally designed to be highly awkward in order to minimise the number of users who will object to it.”
If you wish to opt out of Meta’s AI training on Facebook, click on the link in the notifications about AI training, or otherwise, go to this Facebook help page. Click on the section that states, “I want to object to or restrict the processing of my personal information from third parties used for building and improving AI at Meta.”
This is where it gets tricky. You must enter your country of residence, first name, surname, email address, and your reason for objection. The form also requires information about whether AI in Meta’s models has knowledge of you. This involves providing any prompts you entered that resulted in your personal information appearing in a response from an AI at Meta model, feature, or experience. Meta also asks for a screenshot proving that your personal information appeared in a response from an AI at Meta. The screenshot should be less than 4 MB and must be in PG, PNG, GIF, TIFF, HEIF, or WebP file format.
To opt-out of Meta’s AI training on Instagram:
- Open the Instagram app on your mobile device.
- Go to your profile and tap the hamburger menu
- Scroll down, locate Help, and tap on Help Centre.
- Next, tap on About AIs on Instagram and find “How Meta uses information for generative AI models.”.
- Scroll down to the bottom and tap on “Learn more and submit requests here.”
- Fill out the form and include proof with screenshots and relevant prompts.
- Enter a one-time code sent to your email address.
- You will then receive an email notifying you whether your request has been honoured or not.
Even after all this, various situations may still allow Meta to use your information for AI training. For instance, your content is being shared by other people on Facebook, or someone else mentions you in posts.
Final Thoughts
Personal data has become the currency of the internet. Every photo, video, and caption posted and shared turns into a vast ocean of data that big tech companies harvest and analyse. While this data collection fuels innovation and drives the development of powerful AI technologies, it also poses significant risks to individual privacy. Thus, it is imperative to stay vigilant about our rights and fully understand the potential implications of such data policies on our personal information.