Your photos and posts will train Meta’s AI, by default

The parent company of Facebook and Instagram, Meta, is boosting AI by relying on information published by its users. Mark Zuckerberg’s company may have already sent you a message to warn you. This email, which concerns the European Union and the United Kingdom, also offers to object to the use of your data but, in practice, it is far from being as simple as a click.

It is a message whose broadcast began on May 22. Instagram users apparently received it first. As far as I am concerned, the email from Facebook arrived during the night from Thursday to Friday and Meta wrote this:

“We will now rely on the legal basis of our legitimate interests, to use your information to develop and improve Meta AI. This means that you have the right to object to the use of your information for these purposes . If your opposition is validated, it will now apply.” Meta therefore considers by default that, unless we object, we give our agreement. First surprise.

If you do not want your data to be used to train – as they say Meta’s AI – you must therefore do “validate his opposition” and, as you have understood, Meta reserves the right not to ratify your request – second surprise – which raises several questions in relation to European regulations, namely the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation, established in 2018) and the brand new Digital Services Act.

The email still offers a link, in order to oppose the use of its data to feed Meta’s AI, but first problem: in my case, I come across a page which tells me that the form opposition… is not available.

If you are more lucky, you will have access to a page which will ask you: your country of residence, your email address and “the impact of this treatment on you”. In other words, you must justify your request! The mention RGPD or the website of the National Commission for Informatics and Liberties (cnil.fr) should suffice as justification, before sending the request which Meta specifies that it will be studied and not necessarily honored. Surprising from the group which has already been targeted by several investigations by the European Commission since the entry into force of the DSA.

The time limit for objecting to this use of our data is not absolutely limited. On the other hand, the email mentions June 26, 2024 as the effective date of Meta’s new privacy policy. There are therefore three weeks left, in Europe, before the group begins to use your information (photos, public publications, exchanges with Meta’s AI, with the exception of private messages).

On the other hand, in the United States where the equivalent of the DSA and the GDPR does not exist, and where users have not received an email comparable to that sent in Europe, the harvest has undoubtedly already started, since the functions of AI arriving in Europe, have been available there since September.