Meta has recently started using the personal data of Europeans for AI training. Contrary to its GDPR obligations, Meta hasn’t asked for consent in advance. Instead, the company claims to have a ‘legitimate interest’ outweighing the fundamental right to privacy. A key argument in favour of such a ‘legitimate interest’ is the reasonable expectations of users. This begs the question: do people want this to happen? To find out more, noyb has commissioned the Gallup Institute to conduct a study among 1,000 Meta users in Germany. The results are clear: While almost 75% of users heard of Meta’s plans, only 7% actually want their data to be used for AI training. This also means that at least 68 million people never heard about the change.
Almost no one wants their data to be used to train Meta AI. Instead of asking users for consent under Article 6(1)(a) GDPR, Meta chose a steamroller approach to training its AI systems with the personal data of EU by simply claiming they have a ‘legitimate interest’ under Article 6(1)(f) GDPR that overrides the fundamental right to data protection of EU users. A major factor to determine if such a ‘legitimate interest’ exists is to look at the reasonable expectations of users. To obtain scientifically reliable data on people’s wishes, noyb has commissioned the Gallup Institute to conduct a representative study among 1,000 Meta users in Germany. The results are clear: 27% of users have not even heard of Meta’s plans and hence did not have any reasonable expectations. More importantly, only 7% actually want their personal data to be used for AI training.
Max Schrems, chairman of noyb: “Meta probably knows that no-one wants to provide the data from their social media accounts just so that Meta gets a competitive advantage over other AI companies that do not have access to such data. Instead of asking for consent and get ‘no’ as an answer, they just decided that their right to profits overrides the privacy rights of at least 274 million EU users.”
Meta made sure that less than 50% of users saw warnings. Despite the fact that almost two thirds of the respondents say that they’ve heard about Meta’s announcement, that’s not thanks to the company’s own efforts. Only 40% of Instagram users remember seeing the in-app notification that was hidden in a notification menu. Equally, only 39% of Facebook users remember the email notification that was sent using a subject line that was aimed at people ignoring the email. The awareness drastically rises with age. Only 21% of respondents between 16-30 remember Meta informing them, while 48% of people over 60 can remember. If 73% of at least 274 million Meta users have heard about the change and 27% haven’t, that means that 68.5 million people have never realised that Meta has started to irreversibly feed their data into an AI system, despite huge public outrage. Other companies that do not see such broad media coverage would likely even have less options to have people be informed.
Men are more willing to hand over their data than women. Interestingly, there’s also a gender difference in the willingness to allow Meta the use of personal data for AI training. While 10% of men said that they want the company to feed their data into its AI systems, only 4% of women said that they want this to happen.
Kleanthi Sardeli, Data Protection Lawyer at noyb: “There is no evidence that Meta fulfilled the legal criteria of users being informed and them having reasonable expectations that Meta would use years of their social media activity for AI training.”
Not only unlawful, but also unwanted. The survey results clearly show that – apart from the fact that Meta’s approach is violating the GDPR – European users don’t want the company to feed their personal data into its AI systems. noyb has already sent Meta a so-called cease-and-desist letter and is currently assessing a potential class action. Meta would then also be liable for damages to consumers. If the non-material damage were € 500 per user, it would amount to around €137 billion for the at least 274 million Meta users in the European Union.
