AFP
VIENNA, Austria — Meta has decided to pause its plans to utilize personal data for training its artificial intelligence technology in Europe, as confirmed by Ireland’s regulator on Friday. This decision comes after Meta faced complaints related to privacy issues.
Just last week, a privacy campaign group based in Vienna filed complaints in 11 European countries against Meta. The group argued that Meta’s proposed privacy policy changes would potentially lead to the unauthorized use of personal data for training various forms of AI technology, both current and future.
The complaints were filed by the European Center for Digital Rights, also known as Noyb (“None of Your Business”), in response to Meta’s announcement of a privacy policy change for its European users starting June 26.
Noyb discovered that Meta planned to utilize all public and private user data collected since 2007 for its AI technology.
Through the complaints, the group urged data protection authorities in the 11 European countries to halt the implementation of Meta’s new privacy policy and conduct a full investigation.
In a statement released on Friday, the Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) stated that it “appreciates Meta’s decision to pause its plans to use public user content from Facebook and Instagram across the EU/EEA for training its large language model.”
The DPC mentioned ongoing engagement with Meta and other EU data protection authorities on this matter.
Noyb founder Max Schrems commented on Meta’s decision, stating, “We welcome this development, but will monitor this closely. So far there is no official change to the Meta privacy policy that would make this commitment legally binding.”
“The cases we filed are ongoing and require a definitive resolution,” he added.
Noyb has been involved in several legal actions against tech giants, leading to regulatory responses. The group’s work began in 2018 with the introduction of the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation.
