Given that AI technology is creeping into our everyday digital lives, Meta’s unveiling of Meta AI on Instagram and other interfaces raises extensive privacy issues. Meta AI which was released in April this year is comprised of intelligent search, image generation and complex task management. However, this has raised concern over users’ personal data being used to develop Artificial Intelligence models.
Since July 2024, Meta AI has been launched across 22 countries on Instagram, facebook, WhatsApp and messenger. Some features, such as AI studio and Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses integration, are still in the experimental stage, nonetheless, Meta’s intentions to extend its capabilities in AI are obvious. It also includes possible implementation with Meta Quest and the creation of AI earphones.
Some of the dismayed users include those who woke up to discover that Meta had been using their personal data to train AI. Meta has not revealed when this data scraping happened but Meta’s Chief Product Officer, Chris Cox acknowledged that AI models have been trained using data scraped from public data on Facebook and Instagram.
How to Opt Out
Meta AI users’ options in regards to the usage of personal data may differ depending on the country they are in. However, users in the EU and the UK criticised the firm due to a convoluted process of opting out of sharing their information with Meta. In response to the feedback, Meta said it would postpone the utilization of European users’ data for AI training. The users of these regions can make a request through the Data Subject Rights where a user can get access, request to have the data deleted or even opt out in the use of the data. However, submitting this request does not mean that action will be taken.
Privacy Concerns
The conversion of the social media application Instagram into a place for artificial intelligence applications poses a threat to people’s privacy. With the increasing use of AI chatbots, image generation and other AI-related products, users are worried by the increases in data usage that the AI has been using without the user giving consent. To those who have been in Instagram from its earlier days, having the platform integrate with AI, without asking for a conformity, is worrying.
