Last month, Meta announced that it would expand its artificial intelligence services globally, and the company notified European users that it would start using their public information to train its AI services from June 26.
European Facebook and Instagram users were sent notices informing them that their public posts may be used to train AI services, including chatbots, sparking privacy concerns and backlash as users wondered where the policy change would apply next.
But for those who live in the US, where online privacy laws are less stringent, Meta AI already uses public posts to train its AI. It's unclear where else Meta plans to expand this program.
Privacy watchdogs have expressed concerns about data usage and the lack of specifics about what Meta will do with people's information, but Meta maintains that it complies with privacy laws and that the information it is collecting allows it to better serve users in certain locations.
Here's what you need to know about Meta's AI chatbot and how to opt out of sharing your information.
Meta's chatbot is our answer to Chat GPT.
Meta AI is an artificial intelligence-powered smart assistant software available for apps like Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram, in feeds, chats and search. Similar to OpenAI's ChatGPT, Apple's Siri and Amazon's Alexa, it's designed to respond to almost any prompt a user gives it.
For example, ask, “Who is the greatest tennis player of all time?”
“The eternal debate!” Meta AI responded to the question. “Opinions vary, but most experts and fans consider Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic to be among the greatest tennis players of all time.”
Meta AI is powered by the company's new powerful large-scale language model, LLaMA 3, an AI technology that can hold conversations and create images.
The chatbot learns from your Instagram and Facebook posts.
The announcement to European users sparked backlash on Reddit, TikTok and Twitter, as well as backlash in the U.S. Meta was not required to notify users, so users may not have realized that Meta had trained its AI on their public posts.
When asked, MetaAI said its smart assistant learned from “vast text datasets” found online. Information came from web pages, books, articles, and research papers. But parts of the dataset also came from social media posts, including Facebook and Instagram posts, MetaAI said, adding that its training was done from “anonymized and aggregated” data.
On its page about its generative AI features, Meta said that photos and text from public Instagram and Facebook posts are used to train its generative AI models, but not private posts or private messages, nor are user prompts for the AI ​​features.
A spokesperson for Meta and its chatbot declined to say how the public information is used beyond “building and improving the AI ​​experience.” It's not clear when Meta began collecting data from its U.S.-based users.
In the US, opt out by setting your account to private.
For Meta users in the United States, there is no way to stop Meta AI from learning from your public social media posts, as there are no privacy laws specific to this.
“While we currently do not have an opt-out feature, we have built in-platform tools that allow you to remove your personal information from chats with Meta AI across our apps,” Meta said in a statement on Friday.
Meta said users of the Meta app in the European Union, the UK, the European Economic Area, and Switzerland have been informed that they can opt out.
Here's how to opt out (for European users):
Visit the Meta Privacy Center through your Facebook account, click on “Data Settings,” then “Off-Facebook Activity,” select “Manage your data,” and turn off “Data Sharing” and “AI Model Training.”
In EU countries, users will also be presented with a “GDPR Settings” where they can click “Exercise your rights” to submit their opt-out request. Users will also need to provide a reason for opting out.
On Instagram, users can tap “Settings,” then “About” and go to “Privacy Policy,” where they'll find information about Meta AI and how to opt out.
Is it legal for Meta AI to use my data?
Facebook's legal terms state that “When you share a photo on Facebook, you give us permission to store, copy, and share it with others.” The company said that depending on your settings, the photo could also be used in other Meta products.
In Europe, despite Meta introducing opt-out features to comply with privacy laws, watchdog groups have expressed concern about the pervasive nature of data use.
The European Digital Rights Centre, known as NOYB (None of Your Business), has filed complaints in several European countries about Meta's policy changes.
“Meta hasn't revealed what it will use the data for, but it could be a simple chatbot, highly aggressive personalized ads or even killer drones,” Max Schrems, chairman and founder of NOYB, said in a news release.