How do I stop Meta from training their AI on my images and text in Instagram?

You may have recently seen a trend going around on Instagram Stories where people post something that looks a little like this:

What’s it all about, and does this even work?

Earlier this year Meta announced that it's using Instagram images and text to train its AI models. This raised significant privacy concerns for users worldwide and left a lot of us deeply upset at the thought that our works, which are in theory protected by copyright, will be exploited without our permission going forward.

Understanding Meta's AI training

Meta's AI is now learning from every single piece of content you and everyone else shares on Instagram. This includes images, captions, comments and even your direct messages (ugh, right?). This data is used to (ostensibly) improve the platform's features by personalising recommendations in our feeds and Explore tab and apparently by helping with content moderation as well.

Why is this a concern?

Apart from the ick factor of knowing that our every move is being monitored there are also

• Privacy Risks: Sharing personal information on social media can make you vulnerable to data breaches and misuse.
• Algorithmic Bias: AI trained on biased data can perpetuate harmful stereotypes and discrimination.
• Lack of Control: Many users feel they have little control over how their data is used by large tech companies.

Which brings us circling back to that trend you may have seen in your Stories where people are desperately trying to opt out of being part of this great AI dataset collection.

Protecting Your Privacy

For Australian Instagram Users:

Currently, Australians have no direct legal option to opt out of Meta's data collection and unfortunately, sharing a Story post that you would like to opt out has no sway whatsoever when it comes to this topic. Our laws have not kept up with the speed at which AI is taking over all manner of industries and as such we currently have no legal recourse.

For Users in the EU, UK, and US:

Under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and other data privacy laws, you may have the right to access, rectify, erase or restrict the processing of your personal data. Contact Meta directly to exercise these rights via your settings and privacy area in your Instagram account. Posting to your Stories will not protect you, so please do not rely on this trend to keep your data safe.

Where are you located and how do you feel about having your data used by Meta to train its AI?

TLDR: In Australia there currently no legal way to opt out of Meta’s AI training on your social media content and posting a request to your Instagram Story asking them not to will not protect you.

X Ilona

Written by Ilona Glastonbury