Meta will reportedly update its privacy policy starting June 26 to allow artificial intelligence to be trained on your data. The news began circulating on social media after Meta sent emails and notifications to users in the UK and EU to inform them of the change, as well as give them a chance to opt out of data collection. Name of one UK user Philip Bloom shared the notification publicly, informing everyone of the upcoming changes, which appear to also affect Instagram users.
These changes will come Allow Meta to employ your data and personal content from Meta-related services for AI training purposes. This means that things like public Facebook posts, Instagram photos and captions, and messages to Meta’s AI chatbots will be fair game for the social media giant to employ in training its huge language model and other AI tools.
Meta says private messages will not be included in training data, and the company has emphasized in its emails and notices that any user (in a protected region) has the “right to object” to the employ of their data. Once the novel policy goes into effect, it will automatically start pulling information from the content types it applies to. To avoid the company withdrawing your content, you can try opting out now by going to this Facebook support page. Please note that this page will only load if you are located in the EU, UK or one of the other areas where by law Meta must offer an opt-out option.
If you are in the US or elsewhere, you can opt-out of certain third-party uses of your information, though as with this type of issue, whether Meta chooses to honor your opt-out is another matter entirely. For this reason, I strongly recommend that you provide as much detail as possible in your claim to avoid a possible rejection of your waiver.
How to opt out of data transfer to AI Meta (EU and UK only)
If you are located in the EU, UK or elsewhere where data regulations may be strict enough for Meta to offer an opt-out, please click on the aid page linked above, then complete and submit the form. You must select your country and justify your opt-out in the text box. You can optionally provide additional information below.
You should receive a response regarding whether Meta will honor your request to opt out of using your information. Be ready to fight –some users report that their requests are rejectedalthough in countries protected by regulations such as the EU’s GDPR, Meta should comply with your request.
There are also some caveats to consider. While the opt-out applies to you, there is no guarantee that it will cover your posts if they are shared by friends or family members who have not opted out of having their data used for AI training. Therefore, please make sure that any family with Facebook or other Meta services also opts out if possible.
This move really isn’t that surprising considering Meta is slowly moving towards offering more AI on its platforms. As such, exploitation of user data – particularly within Meta services – was always a likely outcome. There is too much data for the company to discard it as training material for various AI projects.
Unfortunately, Speedy Company AND Business expert claim that Meta has already started mining user data in the US. As more companies employ AI services, it will become increasingly essential to carefully read all terms of user agreements to ensure they do not contain any hidden representations to the company to access your data for AI training purposes.
