In addition to informing users in Europe that it would begin using their public data to train its artificial intelligence services on June 26, Meta stated last month that it was planning to extend its artificial intelligence services globally.
Users expressed privacy worries and outrage after Facebook and Instagram users in Europe received alerts that their publicly shared content might be used to train artificial intelligence (A.I.) services, such as Meta’s chatbot. Many wondered when the policy change would take effect.
However, since online privacy rules are less stringent in the US, Meta A.I. has already begun training its AI with public posts from US citizens. Where else Meta might take the program is unknown.
Privacy advocates are concerned about how the data is being used and the lack of clarity surrounding Meta’s plans for using user data. However, Meta claims that it complies with privacy rules and that the data it collects will help to improve the relevance of services for users in a particular area.
Here’s what to know about Meta’s A.I. chatbot and how you can opt out of sharing your information.
Meta’s chatbot is its answer to ChatGPT.
Using artificial intelligence, Meta A.I. is a smart assistant program that works with apps like Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. It can be used in feeds, chat, and search. Like ChatGPT from OpenAI, Siri from Apple, or Alexa from Amazon, it can react to practically any command that a user gives it.
For example, you might ask: Who’s the greatest tennis player of all time?
“The eternal debate!” Meta A.I. responded to that query. “While opinions may vary, many experts and fans consider Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic to be among the greatest tennis players of all time.”
The new and potent large language model (LLaMA 3) developed by the business powers Meta A.I. It is an artificial intelligence system capable of creating images and conducting discussions.
The chatbot learns from Instagram and Facebook posts.
The announcement to European users sparked some backlash on Reddit, Tiktok and Twitter, including in the U.S., where Meta was not required to notify users — and therefore users may not have realized — that it had been training its A.I. with their public posts.
The intelligent assistant claimed to have learned from “a vast data set of text” online when questioned. The sources of the data were books, journals, research papers, and websites. However, Meta A.I. said that some of the data set also originated from social media posts, such as those on Facebook and Instagram, and that “anonymized and aggregated” data served as the basis for its training.
Meta stated on a page describing its generative AI capabilities that its models were trained using text and images from Facebook and Instagram public postings, but not from private chats or posts. Prompts from users for the AI functions are also acceptable.
A spokesperson for Meta — and its chatbot — did not specify exactly how the public information was being used other than to “build and improve A.I. experiences.” It is not clear when Meta began to scrape data from users based in the U.S.
In the U.S., opt out by setting your account to private.
Because there are no particular privacy rules for this, Meta users in the United States have no means to prevent Meta A.I. from learning from their public social media posts.
“While we don’t currently have an opt-out feature, we’ve built in-platform tools that allow people to delete their personal information from chats with Meta A.I. across our apps,” Meta said in a statement on Friday.
Those using Meta apps within the European Union, Britain, the European Economic Area and Switzerland were notified that they could opt out, according to Meta.
Here’s how to opt out (for those in Europe).
Visit the Meta Privacy Center from your Facebook account, click on “data settings” and then click “off-Facebook activity.” Then select “manage your data” and turn off “data sharing,” as well as “A.I. model training.”
In E.U. countries, users will also see “G.D.P.R. settings.” From there, users can click on “exercise my rights,” and submit a request to opt out. Users also must give a reason for opting out.
On Instagram, users can tap on “settings,” then “about,” and then “privacy policy,” which will lead to information on Meta A.I. and how to opt out.
Is it legal for Meta A.I. to use my data?
In Facebook’s legal terms, that company says that “if you share a photo on Facebook, you give us permission to store, copy, and share it with others.” Depending on your settings, that photo can be used for other Meta products, according to the company.
In Europe, watchdog groups have expressed concerns regarding the broad scope of data usage, despite Meta having implemented an opt-out provision to adhere to privacy rules.
Regarding Meta’s policy change, the European Center for Digital Rights, often known as NOYB (None of Your Business), filed complaints in a number of European nations.
“Meta doesn’t say what it will use the data for, so it could either be a simple chatbot, extremely aggressive personalized advertising or even a killer drone,” Max Schrems, the chairman and founder of NOYB, said in a news release.
