Meta targeted by complaints in 11 European countries for a project of “illegal” use of its users’ data

The American social media giant Meta (owner of Facebook and Instagram) is the target of complaints in 11 European countries, including France, for a project to use “illegal” personal data of its users in an artificial intelligence program, according to a press release from the Noyb association (“None of your business”) published Thursday June 6. Austrian NGO calls on authorities to intervene “emergency” to prevent the implementation of this new privacy policy, scheduled for June 26.

If some public data is already used to train generative AI models, Meta wants to go further and “definitely take” all the data of its billions of users collected since 2007. The goal: to use it as part of a “experimental AI technology without any limits”, according to Noyb.

“They are essentially saying that they can use any data from any source for any purpose and make it available to anyone in the world,” denounces the founder of the NGO, Max Schrems. He wonders about their use, in the absence of the user’s consent: will these data be used to develop “a simple chatbot, aggressive personalized ads or even a killer drone?”

After these 11 states, procedures will be initiated in other EU countries “in the coming days”. The Noyb association is at the origin of numerous complaints against web giants. For Meta, his actions led to “administrative fines of more than 1.5 billion euros”according to her.