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The “Goodbye Meta AI” message, which is intended to protect the user from Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp using their accounts as an AI training ground, has become an increasingly common feature on timelines. It has been shared by actors and sports stars including James McAvoy, Ashley Tisdale and Tom Brady, as well as hundreds of thousands of others.
But why and what effect will it have, if any?
Why are people posting this?
Meta, the parent company of the three platforms, has announced that it will press ahead with its controversial plans to use millions of UK Facebook and Instagram posts to train its artificial intelligence (AI) technology, a practice that breaches privacy laws. of the EU.
The Information Commissioner’s Office said last week it will monitor the experiment following changes agreed with Meta, including making it easier for users to opt out. Privacy advocates have accused goal of “turning us all into involuntary (and unpaid) test subjects for their experiments.”
Evidently, many users are equally unhappy and seem to post the message in the belief that it will assert their right to opt out.
Will he do it?
In a word: no.
Meta has said that sharing the story does not count as a valid form of objection, just as previous tranches of legal jargon shared periodically by users in recent years have not given them the copyright or privacy protection they hoped for.
In 2012, fact-checking website Snopes reported on a series of posts appearing online that sought to assert user privacy rights regarding Instagram content. All of this was, the site reported, an “expression of the mistaken belief that the use of some simple legal talisman (knowing enough to ask the right question or posting a relevant disclaimer) will immunize one against some legal consequence.” undesirable. The law just doesn’t work that way.”
Where does it come from?
According to Meta-aligned fact-checking site Lead Stories, the latest version came from a hoax status posted on September 1. Their text had some differences, but followed a similar pattern:
Goodbye MetaIA! You are told to stay away from my personal information and photographs, and any private information of mine. A lawyer has advised us all to publish this or there could be legal consequences. Since Meta is now a public entity, all members must publish a similar statement. If you do not post this at least once, it is assumed that you are allowing the use of your personal information and photographs. I do not give you permission to use any of my data or photographs.
More generally, Snopes reports, this genre of posts dates back to the early 2000s, when some websites began citing “Internet Privacy Act code 431.322.12.” Its owners apparently believed they could immunize themselves from the legal consequences of their online actions by invoking a fictitious law.
Does all this apply to me?
Meta has already said it will use publicly available content from users in the UK to train its generative AI, though not private posts.
So if that refers to you, then yes.
So what will work?
Meta has said that it will accept all objection forms completed by users. The company has indicated that all adults using Facebook and Instagram based in the United Kingdom will receive a notification with a link to said form in the coming days.