Nearly 550,000 people have shared a fake Instagram story statement claiming that unless they post it, Meta will ‘use their information’.
An increasing number of tech giants are subtly tweaking their privacy policies so they can train AI chatbots and other services with public user information.
Among them is Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram and between them has 3 billion users.
But now a viral post is claiming that people can opt out of this by simply sharing a copy-paste statement on their Instagram stories.
The statement reads: ‘Goodbye Meta AI. Please note 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 okay 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.’
Julianne Moore, Sarah Paulson and James McAvoy are among the celebrities who have shared the post so far, which first gained traction earlier this month.
Unsurprisingly, no, this is completely made up.
Instagram has since flagged the post, which can be automatically shared on user’s stories, as false information. It now doesn’t display and is blurred – people need to click ‘see post’ to view it.
‘Third-party fact-checkers said the same information was false in another post. While the posts are similar, there may be small differences,’ the warning says.
Instagram included a link to fact-checking services Lead Stories which concluded that sharing it doesn’t mean you suddenly tear up Meta’s terms and conditions.
‘But users in Europe can object via a form in their account settings,’ fact-checkers added.
On a page about its generative AI tools, Meta said photos and text posted on Instagram and Facebook were used to train its AI models but private posts and direct messages aren’t used. Material posted publicly by under-18s is also not used.
How can I opt-out of Meta AI training with my data?
It’s pretty simple.
Visit the Meta Privacy Center from your Facebook account, click ‘data settings’ and then tap ‘off-Facebook activity’.
You’ll then need to select ‘manage your data’ and turn off ‘data sharing’ and ‘AI model training’.
On Instagram, users can tap ‘settings’, ‘about’ and then ‘privacy policy’.
Similar copied-and-pasted text posts, called ‘copypastas’, have done the rounds on Facebook and Instagram. Fact-checkers say users can’t retroactively tap out from privacy terms they agreed to when signing up.
Neither can they tweak new policies by posting a contrary legal notice on their accounts.
Meta announced the launch of generative AI features last year. Its new terms and conditions – which went into effect on June 26 – allow it to use posts, images and online tracking data to train its AI large language model called LLaMa 3.
This powers Meta AI, a smart assistant software that offers a similar service to ChatGBT in feeds, chat and search. The chatbot also learns by scraping web pages, books, articles and research papers.
Meta said earlier this month it will ‘begin training for AI at Meta using public content shared by adults on Facebook and Instagram in the UK over the coming months’.
‘This means that our generative AI models will reflect British culture, history, and idiom, and that UK companies and institutions will be able to utilise the latest technology,’ Meta said in a news release.
Facebook’s legal terms explain: ‘If you share a photo on Facebook, you give us permission to store, copy, and share it with others.’
European users were given the option to object to this in June, with Meta saying it would honour all objection forms submitted.
The European privacy group, NOYB (None Of Your Business) took legal action against Meta last month, claiming that Meta is violating GDPR by processing users’ data without their consent.
Max Schrems, of NOYB said: ‘Meta is basically saying that it can use “any data from any source for any purpose and make it available to anyone in the world”, as long as it’s done via “AI technology”. This is clearly the opposite of GDPR compliance.’
A 2017 study found that 91% of consumers accept the terms and conditions without reading them.
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