A new artificial intelligence project from Meta Platforms, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, is facing complaints from privacy-focused advocates in 11 European countries, highlighting the challenges big tech groups face when using user data to train their AI tools.
A new artificial intelligence project from Meta Platforms, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, is facing complaints from privacy-focused advocates in 11 European countries, highlighting the challenges big tech groups face when using user data to train their AI tools.
The Vienna-based non-governmental organization Neub European Digital Rights Center said on Thursday it had filed complaints with privacy authorities in seven countries, including Germany, France, Italy and Spain, urging privacy advocates to halt Meta's project before the privacy policy changes come into effect on June 26.
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The Vienna-based non-governmental organization Neub European Digital Rights Centre said on Thursday that it had filed complaints with privacy authorities in seven countries, including Germany, France, Italy and Spain, urging privacy groups to halt Meta's project before the privacy policy changes come into effect on June 26.
A Meta spokesman said the company believes its approach complies with privacy laws and is in line with how other European tech companies are developing AI.
The complaint highlights the data privacy challenges big tech companies may face as they try to gain an advantage in the AI race. Even before OpenAI launched its chatbot ChatGPT in late 2022 and AI became a hot topic, tech giants have had to deal with privacy concerns, especially in EU countries.
European Union lawmakers earlier this year approved a sweeping bill on AI that will be phased in over several years, laying out sweeping rules for developers and new restrictions on how the technology can be used. Other EU competition laws aimed at digital markets have already forced companies such as Apple and Alphabet Inc's Google to change their products and services.
The latest privacy complaints in Europe relate to an internal AI project that Meta said last month it would roll out to Europe by the end of the year. The company said it would expand its generative AI capabilities globally, including in Europe, to use public information shared by Facebook and Instagram users on Meta's platforms to train the models that power its AI tools.
Meta said at the time that it would begin notifying people about how it uses their data in accordance with local privacy laws. The company said it processes certain first- and third-party data to improve its AI tools.
The Austrian NGO said Meta intends to use the public and private user data it has collected since 2007 for undefined AI techniques, without disclosing which third parties it would source the information from.
The group said users have no option to delete their data from the system.
Write to Helena Smolak at helena.smolak@wsj.com.
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