- European advocacy groups have filed complaints in 11 countries about the new Meta AI policy.
- None of Your Business (NOYB) said Meta's new policy will allow it to collect user data to train its AI.
- Unlike American users, European users have the option to opt out of sharing their information.
As Meta struggles to compete in the heated AI arms race, one advocacy group is calling on nearly a dozen European countries to force the company to put the brakes on.
European advocacy groups said they have received complaints in 11 European countries about Meta's upcoming policy changes that will allow the company to collect old user data from Facebook to train its artificial intelligence models.
Meta “plans to use years of personal posts, private images or online tracking data for unspecified 'AI technology' that can ingest personal data from any source and share any information with unspecified 'third parties,'” the group, which dubbed NOYB (None of Your Business), said in a press release calling on authorities to intervene and stop the policy.
Meta's privacy policy update is due to go into effect in late June and will affect around 400 million European users, according to NOYB, which said it was concerned that users would now have to manually opt out of providing their data.
“Instead of asking users for consent (opt-in), Meta asserts that it has legitimate interests which override European users' fundamental rights to data protection and privacy,” NOYB said. Europe has strict data privacy laws outlined in the European Union's Data Privacy Act. General Data Protection RegulationIt came into force in 2018. And it has had a major impact on the operations of major technology companies in Europe.
NOYB has filed complaints in Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland and Spain.
A Meta spokesperson did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment, but the company previously told Reuters that the new policy law.
“We believe our approach complies with privacy law and is consistent with how other European technology companies, including Google and Open AI, are developing and improving AI experiences,” a Meta spokesperson said, according to Reuters.
In the US, Meta AI has already accessed public user data and private chat conversations on Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, according to the Washington Post. How to opt out of information sharing entirely.
