Security Bite: Meta will start using your data to train its AI next week, but you may be able to opt out

Arin Waichulis | Jun 23 2024 - 9:47 am PT

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As Meta ramps up its efforts to stay competitive in an industry dominated by artificial intelligence, users are becoming increasingly concerned after a significant update to its privacy policy. Beginning June 26, if you post or interact with chatbots on Facebook, Instagram, Threads, or WhatsApp, Meta may use your data to train its generative AI models–but you may be able to opt out depending on where you live.

AI models need a substantial amount of training data to function effectively, but the efficacy of how that data is collected is one of the biggest challenges in AI right now. We’ve seen a recent barrage of lawsuits against OpenAI and Microsoft on the grounds of copyright infringement, which could take years to play out.

However, for Meta, user data is the gift that keeps on giving.

If you use Facebook, WhatsApp, or Instagram to send direct messages, you might have noticed Meta’s new AI assistant (Meta AI). It offers recommendations for things like restaurants, home renovations, help with public speaking, coding advice for beginners, and can even generate images. Meta claims the assistant is designed to “get things done, learn, create, and connect with the things that matter to you.”

Currently, its AI models primarily consist of information scraped from the web and licensed data. Still, beginning June 26, user data from posts and AI chatbot interactions across all Meta platforms (Facebook, Instagram, Threads, Messenger, and WhatsApp) will be fair game, per an update to its privacy policy. Even if you’re not on these platforms, Meta can still scrape data from posts you’re tagged in or images you posted by someone else.

What this means for US users

It’s a grim outlook for those outside the European Union, including the US. Since the United States has no overarching national data privacy and protection law similar to the European Union’s GDPR, there is no foolproof way to keep Meta from using your data to train its AI. And no, using a VPN to trick Meta into thinking you’re in an EU country won’t work–I tried.

The next best option?

Fill out the Data Subject Rights for Third Party Information Used for AI at Meta form in Facebook’s Help Center. While this won’t keep Meta from scraping data from your profile and posts, but it will delete any publically available third-party information it has collected about you from the internet.

How EU and UK users can opt out

The Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) and the U.K.’s Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) have demanded that Meta postpone its AI data collecting plans until it can address their privacy concerns about users. In a statement earlier this month, Meta complied but pushed back in a statement reading “This is a step backwards for European innovation, competition in AI development and further delays bringing the benefits of AI to people in Europe.”

This echoes recent news of Apple delaying the launch of Apple Intelligence features in the EU due to regulatory concerns relating to compliance with the Digital Markets Act.

While Meta will not launch its Meta AI in Europe for now, users still have the option to opt out of data collection when they do. Here’s how:

Navigate to the Settings page on the Instagram or Facebook app.
Click About and scroll down to Privacy Policy
From here, you’ll see a new section about Meta AI, which includes an opt-out form called “Right to object.”

About Security Bite: Security Bite is a weekly security-focused column on 9to5Mac. Every week, Arin Waichulis delivers insights on data privacy, uncovers vulnerabilities, or sheds light on emerging threats within Apple’s vast ecosystem of over 2 billion active devices to help you still safe.

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