Users have voiced worries over the privacy and security of their data since Meta, the parent company of Instagram and Facebook, has been training its AI models since last year using public postings from the profiles of American users. But there is a way to deny the company from using your posts to train its artificial intelligence systems.
Some are worried that the US-based corporation Meta is breaking data protection rules in several parts of the world by utilizing publicly available information from US social networking accounts to train artificial intelligence without giving consumers a way to opt-out.
The business has suggested modifying its privacy policies for users in the EU and the UK to permit the use of publicly accessible material for training artificial intelligence. However, consumers and government agencies opposed this proposal, so it was shelved.
While acknowledging that this practice is not exclusive to Meta, the importance of comprehending how the company trains its models was underlined. Meta said that public data is used to educate AI.
This company will use any information about you that you make public. The media in your feed, as well as the text that accompanies it, falls under this category. If your account is public, Meta will be able to utilize this information. No information from private accounts, Instagram stories, Facebook, or Threads will be affected. Even for users with public profiles, Meta claims it does not take any data from Facebook and Instagram’s private messaging features.
If the EU hadn’t intervened, American citizens would not be aware that Meta is mining their data for AI training purposes.
EU legislation requires companies to declare their data collection, usage, and storage practices and provide an opt-out mechanism. Meta was required by law to notify its EU users of the policy change by email.
To prevent Meta from accessing your personal information to train its AI, you should either remove any public posts from your Instagram or Facebook accounts or make them private. Nevertheless, not every user will find these options practical or desirable.
If you’d rather not have your data used to train AI by Meta than have a public profile, you may follow these steps.
