Meta's AI Project Encounters Privacy Complaints in Europe --- Approach complies with law, company says, and is consistent with other firms'

"A new artificial-intelligence project from Meta Platforms, parent of Facebook and Instagram, has run into complaints from a privacy-focused advocacy group in 11 European countries -- highlighting the challenges for big technology companies as they turn to their users' data to train their AI tools.

The Noyb-European Center for Digital Rights, a Vienna-based nongovernmental organization, said Thursday that it filed complaints with data-protection authorities in Germany, France, Italy, Spain and seven other countries. The organization is urging the privacy bodies to stop Meta's project before changes on its privacy policy take effect on June 26, it said.

A Meta spokesperson said the company is confident that its approach complies with privacy laws and is consistent with how other tech companies are developing AI in Europe.

The complaints demonstrate how data-privacy issues could complicate big technology groups' efforts to gain an edge in the AI race. Even before AI rose to prominence following the launch of OpenAI's ChatGPT chatbot in late 2022, tech giants had to deal with privacy concerns, particularly in EU countries.

European Union lawmakers earlier this year approved comprehensive legislation on AI, setting out sweeping rules for developers and new restrictions on how the technology can be used. They are set to take effect gradually over several years.

A previous, separate EU competition law aimed at digital markets pushed companies like Apple and Alphabet's Google to make changes to their products and services.

The latest European privacy complaints relate to an in-house AI project that Meta plans to bring to Europe by the end of the year, it said last month.

The company said it would expand its generative AI features globally, including in Europe, and that it would use public information that Facebook and Instagram users shared on Meta's platforms to train the models that power its AI tools.

Meta said at the time it would began notifying people about how it would use their data, in compliance with local privacy laws. To improve its AI tools, the company said it would process certain first- and third-party data.

The Austrian NGO said Meta intends to take public and nonpublic user data it has collected since 2007 and use it for an undefined AI technology and didn't disclose the third parties it would source information from.

Users don't have the option to remove their data from the system, the NGO said." [1]

1. Meta's AI Project Encounters Privacy Complaints in Europe --- Approach complies with law, company says, and is consistent with other firms'. Smolak, Helena.  Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 07 June 2024: B.4.