If you’ve been on Facebook recently, you might have seen friends or even celebrities posting about Meta’s artificial intelligence. A viral message reads like this:
“Goodbye, Meta AI. Please note that an attorney has advised us to put this on; failure to do so may result in legal consequences. As Meta is now a public entity, all members must post a similar statement. If you do not post at least once, it will be assumed you are OK with them using your information and photos. I do not give Meta or anyone else permission to use any of my personal data, profile information or photos.”
This message is legally bunk. Posting an image with these words offers people no legal protections against Meta or how it uses your data for training its AI. Additionally, Meta is only public in the sense that it’s been a publicly traded company on the Nasdaq stock market since 2012.
So, how can you actually opt out? Well, if you’re in the US, you can’t. In Europe and the UK, where there are privacy laws, you can follow these helpful instructions published by MIT Technology Review to keep what you post out of Meta’s training algorithms.