Meta, the parent company of popular social media platforms including Facebook, Instagram, and Threads, is set to begin utilizing user data from European citizens to enhance its artificial intelligence (AI) technologies. This undertaking comes on the heels of Meta’s long record of investment into generative AI technology. Specifically, it draws attention to their foundation large language model, Llama, which is intended for use in a variety of value-adding applications across Meta’s platforms.
Bringing in user interactions and public posts from across the web into AI training has raised enormous alarms. It’s the increasing number of users that have privacy and data security concerns. Many users have made the decision to delete their accounts to remove themselves from the company’s harmful actions. This is an erroneous implication, as this action does not guarantee that their information has been scrubbed from Meta’s databases.
Controversies Surrounding Data Use
Meta has been under fire for allegedly using copyrighted material, such as books, to train its AI models. According to public reports, the company continued with this practice even after being cautioned that what they were doing was illegal. Needless to say, this has caused a storm of controversy on the matter of intellectual property rights and the ethics of AI training practices.
In light of these controversies, users in droves are making their voices heard. These users are voting with their feet against Meta by deactivating their Facebook, Instagram and Threads accounts. Deactivating an account doesn’t delete all the other previously collected data that Meta has on you. As the age of AI continues to unfold, the debate over data privacy and responsible development of AI technologies grows ever more urgent.
User Data Collection Practices
Most recently, Meta has publicly committed to begin monitoring user engagement data. This is true for everyone who interacts with its AI features across Facebook, Instagram, Threads, WhatsApp and Messenger. This initiative aims to improve the overall social media experience by leveraging real-time user interactions to enhance AI capabilities.
Further, all public posts from European users will contribute to training data in the case of Meta’s AI systems. The company has repeatedly claimed that it respects user choice. At a minimum, European citizens should be able to opt out of having their data used to train AI systems. Meta highlights the importance of honoring user preferences when it comes to keeping trust at the center of its platforms.
Commitment to Privacy
Meta’s goal is to leverage all its users’ data feeds to train and strengthen its AI models. In response, the company has committed not to train AI models using private messages within that territory. This assurance has sought to assuage some of the privacy-related concerns that users in Europe have raised in the wake of TOS 3.0.
The company can’t stop their user data from being shared far and wide with third party advertisers, a core tenet of the company’s strategy to profitability. The balance between improving user experience through AI advancements and safeguarding personal information remains a key challenge for Meta as it navigates the complex landscape of digital privacy.
