Advocacy Group Rejects Meta’s Plan to Use User Data for AI Training

An advocacy group in Europe, NOYB (None of Your Business), has firmly rejected Meta’s plan to use the personal data of Facebook and Instagram users to train its Artificial Intelligence (AI) models. 

On Thursday, NOYB called on privacy enforcers across Europe to halt such usage. 

The group urged national privacy watchdogs to take immediate action against recent changes in Meta’s privacy policy, set to take effect on June 26. 

These changes would allow Meta to use years of personal posts, private images, and online tracking data for its AI technology.

NOYB has launched 11 complaints against Meta and has asked data protection authorities in Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, and Spain to initiate urgent procedures due to the imminent changes. 

The group highlighted that Meta’s actions could violate user privacy rights and urged for swift intervention.

Meta’s Response

Meta has dismissed NOYB’s criticism, referring to a blog post from May 22. In this post, Meta stated that it uses publicly available online information, licensed data, and information shared publicly on its platforms to train AI models. 

Meta’s spokesperson told Reuters, “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 message sent to Facebook users indicated that Meta might process information about individuals who do not use its products if they appear in an image or are mentioned in posts or captions shared by a user. 

This raised further concerns about privacy violations, as non-users would have no control over their data being used.

NOYB’s Legal Standpoint

Max Schrems, founder of NOYB, emphasized that Europe’s top court had already ruled on this issue in 2021. 

Schrems stated, “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. 

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 also criticized the complexity of opting out, saying, “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. 

If Meta wants to use your data, they have to ask for your permission. Instead, they made users beg to be excluded.”

Ongoing Complaints and Investigations

NOYB has filed several complaints against Meta and other big tech companies for alleged breaches of the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). 

The GDPR threatens fines of up to 4% of a company’s total global turnover for violations. 

NOYB’s efforts are part of a broader scrutiny of tech platforms like Meta, which are frequently accused of misusing the data of billions of users.

In October last year, the Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC) announced it was investigating Meta and other companies for potential data breaches based on user complaints. 

The NDPC noted that complaints against Meta included behavioural advertising without explicit consent, affecting approximately 40 million Facebook accounts in Nigeria.