Is AI Learning from Your Vacation Pics? Here's How to Take Back Control

Imagine you are sharing your thoughts or vacation photos on social media, and a machine is quietly watching, learning and growing smarter—using your personal moments as their textbook. You don't have to imagine, because that is exactly what is happening. 

Artificial Intelligence requires a large scale of data to learn from and improve its decision-making power. After having scraped the web of all possible data, Big Tech firms are now actively feeding user-generated data on social media platforms and internet forums to their respective AI models.

Companies like Meta, Google, and Microsoft are feeding their AI systems a steady diet of our posts, photos, and conversations. The catch? We were never asked for permission.

The privacy landscape is starkly divided. Europeans and UK residents, protected by strict data protection laws, were given a choice. The rest of the world? They were quietly opted in, their digital lives becoming unwitting contributors to AI's education. So most users were then left to figure this out on their own, along with how to opt-out. Meanwhile, some platforms did not even provide the option to opt-out at all.

Why Should You Be Concerned?

While we're still reeling from the impact of social media on larger human behaviour, diving headfirst into something as new as artificial intelligence can expose us to unprecedented adverse impacts, warns digital privacy researcher Prateek Waghre.

In conversation with BOOM, Waghre pointed out that social media companies have already been using our information to gain insights on us and target us with ads, leading to a range of unpredictable psychological impacts. "It is yet unclear as to what additional risks come with providing our data to train AI models," he added, while highlighting the importance of giving users the option to better control how their data is used.

Steps to Opt-Out of AI Data Training

But there's some hope. Many platforms offer ways to step back from this involuntary participation in AI's development.

Meta - No Privacy Laws? Can't Opt Out

Meta (Facebook and Instagram's parent company) seems to be one of the most rigid, offering no opt-out options unless you live in the EU or UK.

So if you are not a resident of EU or UK and have posted photos of your family vacation on Instagram, chances are that those photos are being used by Meta to train its latest Llama model.

In September, Meta's global privacy director Melinda Claybaugh admitted to an Australian government inquiry that the big tech giant scraped the user data of all Australian users because there were no regulations stopping them from doing so. Which is why EU users have an opt-in option instead, with the General Data Protection Regulation protecting its digital users from such forced opt-in strategies.

While India has its own regulations on data protection under the Digital Personal Data Protection Act (DPDPA), section 3(c)(ii) of the act drastically limits the scope for legal recourse, adds Waghre. According to this section, provisions of the act will not apply to personal data that has been made available on public platforms by the user.

For those in EU and UK, there is, fortunately, a way to opt-out, through the following steps:

For Facebook users:

1. Log into your Facebook account and click here to access the Privacy Policy page. Click on the text that says "Learn more about your right to object.”
   You can alternatively access the "Right to object form" by clicking on the top-right corner over the account icon, and selecting "Settings and privacy", then "Privacy center." Then click on the drop-down menu on the left that reads “How Meta uses information for generative AI models and features". Scroll down the page, and click on "Right to object."
2. Fill in the right to object for with your account details, along with an explanation on how your are impacted by your data being used by Meta. Users in the EU and UK can simply argue that they object to their personal data being used under their administration's data protection laws.
3. Submit the form, and wait for opt-out confirmation from Meta.

For Instagram users:

1. Click on the three lines at top-right corner of your Instagram profile page, then click on "Settings and privacy."
2. Click on "More info and support", following by "About." Go to "Privacy policy" and access the right to object form by clicking on the text that says “Learn more about your right to object.”
3. Fill up the form following the same instructions for Facebook users.

Grok AI (X)

If you are an X (formerly Twitter) user, you have likely been opted in to provide your X posts to train the platforms AI model Grok. However, opting out is easy.

1. Log in to your X account, click on "More" on the menu on the right, followed by "Settings and Privacy."
2. Scroll down to the "Data sharing and personalization" section, and click on "Grok." You can directly access this option by clicking here.
3. Deselect the option that reads "Allow your posts as well as your interactions, inputs, and results with Grok to be used for training and fine-tuning."
4. If you have used the Grok chatbot, you can also click on "Delete conversation history" to stop your chat data to be used for further training.

LinkedIn

Like other social media platforms, LinkedIn had also automatically opted in its non-EU and non-UK users to train its AI models. Here is how you can opt out.

1. Log in to LinkedIn account, and then click on your account icon on the top-right corner (which says "me"). Click on "Settings and Privacy" in the drop down menu.
2. Click on "Data Privacy" on the right-hand menu. Under the section "How LinkedIn uses your data" you find an option which reads "Data for Generative AI Improvement" - click on it. You can also directly access this page by clicking here.
3. Click on the toggle switch next to the text which reads "Use my data for training content creation AI models" so it says "Off."

Reddit

Earlier this year, Reddit announced a deal with Google to provide its user-data in real time to train Google's AI model for $60 million per year. In return, Reddit will have access to Google's Vertex AI, a feature meant to improve the performance of search results.

Reddit users can unfortunately not opt out of providing their data to train Google's AI model.

Slack

While Slack does not use user data to train its AI product, its privacy page mentions that such data is used to improve their software's machine-learning power.

The only way to opt out is for the workspace administrator to send an opt out request. Slack's privacy page mentions the following:

"To opt out, please have your org, workspace owners or primary owner contact our Customer Experience team at feedback@slack.com with your workspace/org URL and the subject line ‘Slack global model opt-out request’. We will process your request and respond once the opt-out has been complete."

ChatGPT/Dall-E

When you are using AI chatbots, your conversation history is also automatically signed up to train the mode, but many platforms provide opt-out methods.

For ChatGPT web users, the opt-out option can be found by going to "Settings" -> "Data Controls" -> unchecking "Improve the model for everyone".

Gemini

Google also allows Gemini users from turning off recording conversations, and delete past conversations.

To do this, access Gemini on a browser, and click on the "Activity" tab on the left hand panel. Click on the Turn Off button next to "Gemini Apps Activity". Below this option, you will also have the choice to delete past conversation history.