Posts, comments, video clips, photos, and numerous personal data publicly shared via Instagram, Facebook, and other applications owned by Meta have, since the end of June, become more than just content we share with friends.
With Meta’s change in its privacy policy, this data can now be used for training artificial intelligence (AI) developed by this United States (U.S.) company.
This change occurred without any announcement or explanation, and millions of users in the Western Balkans were not even informed about Meta’s new “Privacy Policy,” which was published on June 26th.
In the document, Meta states the launch of a new service – the ability to create text, sound, images, and videos via AI.
Meta collects publicly shared content that users post on its platforms so that the new service provided through AI development will align with this practice.
What does Meta’s new policy entail?
The privacy policy serves as a kind of contract between platform users and the company that provides various digital products and services.
The most important part of this document is which data the digital platform collects and how it processes it. Meta changes its policy precisely in these important parts.
Namely, in the part of the policy “How and why we process your data,” Meta, on one hand, lists a series of services and products it provides, and on the other hand, the various types of user data it collects for these purposes.
According to the document, the data in question are publicly posted content that users leave on platforms such as profile data, name, username, and profile photo, then comments on social media, as well as video and audio content that is publicly shared.
Meta possesses very sensitive information
“If we look at Meta, what is special in this case is that they have access to platforms like WhatsApp, Instagram, and Facebook, which have thousands of millions, actually billions of users and profiles, where sensitive information is located,” says lawyer Felix Mikolasch.
Commenting on the Privacy Policy, Mikolasch points out two key things – that the company did not seek users’ consent to use their data for AI training, and that the AI model being developed is not described in detail.
“We can use this data for any purpose, we don’t know exactly what we will use it for, we will just generally use it for AI technology. So, this does not provide any information to users,” says Mikolasch, adding that the company must be more transparent, Radio Slobodna Evropa writes.
E.Dz.
