Who Can Opt Out of Meta’s AI Data Training (and Who Can’t)

Starting on June 26, Meta will reportedly update its privacy policy to allow its AI to be trained on your data. The news began circulating on social media after Meta sent out emails and notifications to users in the U.K. and E.U. to advise them of the change, as well as give them a chance to opt-out of the data collection. One UK-based user named Phillip Bloom shared the notification publicly, giving everyone a heads up about the impending changes, which also appear to be slated to affect Instagram users, too.

These changes will give Meta permission to use your information and personal content from Meta-related services to train its AI. This means that things like public posts on Facebook, posted Instagram photos and captions, as well as messages to Meta's AI chatbots will all be fair game for the social media giant to use in training up its large language model and other AI tools.

Meta says private messages won’t be included in the training data, and the company emphasized in its emails and notifications that every user (in a protected region) has the “right to object” to their data being used. Once enacted, the new policy will automatically start pulling information from affected types of content. To avoid the company pulling from your content, you can attempt to opt out right now by heading over to this Facebook support page. Keep in mind that this page will only load if you're in the E.U., U.K., or one of the other areas where Meta has to offer an opt-out by law.

If you're in the U.S. or other places, you can opt out of some third-party data usages, though as with anything like this, whether or not Meta decides to honor your opt-out is entirely another issue. Because of that, I highly recommend putting as much detail as possible in your claim, just to avoid any possible rejection of your opt out.

How to opt out of contributing your data to Meta's AI (E.U. and U.K. only)

If you're in the E.U. or U.K., or any other location that might have strict enough data laws for Meta to offer an opt-out, click on the support page linked above, then fill out the form and submit it. You'll need to select your country and explain your reasoning for opting out in a text box, and below that, you'll optionally be able to provide additional information.

You should receive a response about whether or not Meta will honor your request to opt out of having your data used. Be prepared to fight—some users are reporting their requests are being denied, though in countries protected by legislation like the E.U.'s GDPR, Meta should have to honor your request.

There are also some caveats to consider. While the opt-out covers you, there's no guarantee that it will cover your posts if they are shared by friends or family members who haven't opted out of data usage for AI training. As such, make sure any family that has Facebook or other Meta services also opts out if they are able to.

This move really isn’t all that surprising, considering Meta has slowly been moving towards offering more AI on its platforms. As such, the use of user data—especially across Meta services—was always a likely outcome. There’s too much data there for the company to turn down as training material for its various AI projects.

Unfortunately, Fast Company and Business Insider say that Meta has already begun mining user data in the U.S. As more companies turn to AI services, it's going to become more and more important to carefully read all terms and conditions in user agreements to ensure there aren't any hidden statements giving the company access to your data for AI training purposes.