The advocacy organisation NOYB criticised a Meta plan on Thursday, urging privacy enforcers around Europe to halt the use of personal data for AI model training without authorization.
TakeAway Points:
- A Meta plan to use personal data to train its artificial intelligence (AI) models without seeking consent came under fire from advocacy group NOYB on Thursday, which called on privacy enforcers across Europe to stop such use.
- The advocacy group said it has filed 11 complaints against Meta and requested that data protection authorities in Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, and Spain open an urgent investigation.
Personal Data Complaint against Meta
With recent modifications to Meta’s privacy policy going into effect on June 26, NOYB (none of your business) asked national privacy watchdogs to take quick action. According to NOYB, Meta will be able to access years’ worth of personal posts, private photographs, or online tracking data for the Facebook owner’s AI technology.
As a result of the impending changes, the advocacy group said it has filed 11 complaints against Meta and requested that data protection authorities in Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, and Spain open an urgent investigation.
Rejecting NOYB’s criticism, Meta pointed to a blog post from May 22 in which it stated that it trains AI using data that is licenced and freely available online, along with publicly published information about its products and services.
Nevertheless, a notice distributed to Facebook users stated that Meta might continue to handle data about individuals who neither use its services nor have an account, provided that they show up in an image or are referenced in posts or captions shared by other users.
“We are confident that our approach complies with privacy laws, and our approach is consistent with how other tech companies are developing and improving their AI experiences in Europe (including Google and Open AI),” a spokesperson said.
Meta Violates EU’s GDPR
Due to alleged violations of the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which carries fines of up to 4% of a company’s total worldwide turnover, NOYB has already filed multiple complaints against Meta and other Big Tech corporations.
In the past, Meta has claimed a rightful purpose for utilising user data in the development and training of its generative AI models and other tools, which it may distribute to outside parties.
In a statement, NOYB founder Max Schrems stated that the European Court of Justice had already made a ruling on this matter in 2021.
“The European Court of Justice (CJEU) has already made it clear that Meta has no ‘legitimate interest’ to override users’ right to data protection when it comes to advertising,” he said.
“Yet the company is trying to use the same arguments for the training of undefined ‘AI technology’. It seems that Meta is once again blatantly ignoring the judgements of the CJEU,” Schrems said.
“Shifting the responsibility to the user is completely absurd. The law requires Meta to get opt-in consent, not to provide a hidden and misleading opt-out form,” Schrems said, adding: “If Meta wants to use your data, they have to ask for your permission. Instead, they made users beg to be excluded”
