Security News > 2024 > July > Privacy warriors gripe to UK watchdog about Meta harvesting user data to train AI

The complaint follows a similar protest in the European Union under the General Data Protection Regulation, which resulted in the social media biz agreeing to pause plans to train AI models on EU users' Facebook and Instagram users' posts.

Although UK data protection law currently mirrors that in the EU, its decision to leave the economic and political bloc came into effect at the end of 2020.

"Mariano delli Santi, complainant and Legal and Policy Officer at Open Rights Group, said:"Meta's plans to ingest its users' data, posts and pictures will impact more than 50 million Instagram and Facebook users in the UK. It's not acceptable that the company is making a half-hearted attempt to enable people to opt out rather than give their consent to such intrusive data processing.

The ORG added that while Meta told users they had the right to object, it did not commit to honoring objections as a matter of course and once a user's data had been used by the company, any consent could not be applied retrospectively.

In June, Meta agreed to pause its plans to train AI models on EU users' Facebook and Instagram posts following pressure from EU regulators.

It said the move would delay its plans to launch Meta AI in the economic zone.

News URL

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/07/16/campaign_group_complains_to_uk/