A European advocacy group has strongly opposed Meta’s plan to utilize personal data from Facebook and Instagram users for training its artificial intelligence (AI) models. On Thursday, the group NOYB (None of Your Business) called on privacy regulators across Europe to halt this initiative. They stressed the urgency for national privacy watchdogs to act promptly, noting that Meta’s new privacy policy, set to take effect on June 26, would enable the company to use years of personal posts, private images, and online tracking data for its AI technology.
NOYB announced that it had lodged 11 complaints against Meta, urging data protection authorities in Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, and Spain to initiate an emergency procedure due to the imminent changes.
In response, Meta dismissed NOYB’s criticisms, pointing to a May 22 blog post where it outlined its use of publicly available and licensed information, as well as publicly shared user data, to train AI. However, a message sent to Facebook users indicated that Meta might process information about non-users if they appear in images or are mentioned in posts shared by users.
A Meta spokesperson asserted that their approach complies with privacy laws and aligns with the practices of other tech companies like Google and OpenAI.
Max Schrems, NOYB’s founder, cited a 2021 European Court of Justice ruling, stating that Meta has no legitimate interest in overriding users’ data protection rights for advertising purposes. He criticized Meta’s arguments for AI training as ignoring the court’s judgments and noted the complexity of opting out. Schrems emphasized that the law requires opt-in consent from users, rather than a hidden opt-out mechanism.
NOYB has previously filed several complaints against Meta and other major tech companies for potential violations of the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which can impose fines of up to 4% of a company’s global turnover for breaches.
Tech platforms like Meta are increasingly under scrutiny by data protection authorities for potentially misusing user data. Last October, Nigeria’s Data Protection Commission began investigating Meta and other firms over alleged data breaches following user complaints. These complaints included issues with behavioral advertising without explicit user consent, potentially affecting around 40 million Facebook accounts in Nigeria.
Credit: Nairametrics (Text Excluding Headline)
