Want the Meta AI app to ‘interpret’ your photos?

The other day, a friend sent me this screenshot: 

Within a couple days of that, I, too, received the same notification that the Meta AI app “now understands and interprets your photos.”

As my friend so perfectly put it: “uhhhh… is there a third option?”

It sounds pretty creepy, but what’s actually the deal here?

Meta AI has likely already used your images

There are some pretty wild reports out there. A user on Reddit reported that Meta AI recreated an image of their child, and sent it to their spouse. (that was an extra-creepy story for me, as the parent of a 5-year-old) 

Another Redditor shared that a contact of theirs used Meta AI glasses to record and analyze their consultation call. The lines of use and consent are getting blurrier by the day.

Big Tech likes to operate under the assumption that everything on the public internet is fair game. Meta reps have also previously stated that public posts are used in their AI training, but they don’t use content from DMs. 

As of last week, however, Instagram removed end-to-end encryption from their DMs, which means that Meta can now see the contents of your direct messages, as well. Knowing that, I fully expect DMs to become part of their AI training pool in the near future… and that includes any images sent through it.

The fact is, we ultimately can’t control what others do with our content once it’s posted online. If we’re lucky enough to find out about any misuse, we may have some legal recourse, but that can be a pretty big IF.

How to opt out of Meta AI training

If you’re in Europe or the UK, you’re lucky enough to have an actual process for opting out of Meta AI training. 

If you’re in the U.S., then I have some bad news for you: Meta doesn’t have an opt-out feature for people who live in countries without national data privacy laws, and that includes us. 

By simply using Meta apps–that includes Facebook, Instagram, and Whatsapp–we’ve essentially agreed to the use of our data for training their AI. So, we can pretty safely assume that any data we’ve posted on the apps up until this point is in their training pool.

The simplest step U.S. users can take to minimize risk is to set their profiles to Private. This doesn’t remove your past data, but items you share in the future won’t be publicly readable. 

If you’re a Facebook user, you should also disable the "Camera roll sharing suggestions" feature within the Facebook app, and make sure app permissions on your device are set appropriately. Again, it doesn’t remove past uploads, but it safeguards you in the future.

What if I use Facebook or Instagram for my business?

If you’re using Facebook or Instagram for your business, you have fewer options. Facebook business pages can’t be set to Private, but you can restrict views by country or age. 

Instagram profiles can be set to Private, but only as Personal accounts. If you have a Professional or Creator account, you’re out of luck. 

Something else to consider: if you do switch to a Personal account and set it to Private, that means your content will not only be hidden from non-followers on the platform, it’ll also be hidden from search engines. Public posts, even from Personal accounts, now get picked up by search engines, so your content can become valuable not just on social platforms, but from an SEO perspective, too.

Is this an argument for separating your business activities from personal? Maybe. What I do encourage, across the board, is a more mindful approach to online spaces, both for your business activities and your personal use. If you care about a photo, choose wisely where you share it.