The tech giant has faced complaints over its use of personal data in its AI models.
advertisementMeta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, is following the example of Google and OpenAI and using European users' data to train its artificial intelligence systems, it said in a blog post published yesterday (10 June).
Meta has come under fire from Austrian privacy group NOYB, which filed a complaint with the 11-nation EU privacy watchdog last week after the tech giant updated its privacy policy to require it to capture all public and private user data, except for person-to-person chats and content from accounts under the age of 18, and use it to train AI technology such as its Llama and Meta AI assistants.
“To properly serve our European communities, the models that power Meta's AI need to be trained on relevant information that reflects the diverse linguistic, geographical, and cultural references of the European people who use them,” Meta said in a blog post.
The company added that it is not the first to do so: “We are following the example of others, including Google and OpenAI, who already use European users' data to train their AI. Our approach is more transparent and easier to control than many of our industry peers who already train their models using similar public information,” the statement added.
The company has sent more than 2 billion in-app notifications and emails to European users explaining these practices and including links to objection forms.
Data Protection Concerns
The U.S. tech giant said it was in discussions with the Irish Data Protection Commission, Europe's main privacy regulator, about creating a responsible model.
“We have taken their feedback into account to ensure that the AI training methods used at Meta comply with EU privacy law,” the company said.
In a complaint filed last week, NOYB argued that Meta's practices do not comply with the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). “'AI technologies' is a very broad term. Just like 'using data in a database,' there are no real legal limitations,” said Max Schrems, a lawyer and founder of NOYB.
Meta will rely on the “legitimate interest” legal basis to comply with GDPR. The Irish Data Protection Commission told Euronews Next last week that “Meta has delayed its launch for a number of reasons.” [of] The DPC's queries have been addressed,” it said, adding that Meta had notified users four weeks before the initial training.
