On Apr. 17, 2025, GE NI DP also opined that Meta's planned use of EU user data requires the prior consent of users and affected third parties due to its significant relevance under data protection law and the diverse nature of the cases.
Should competent Irish supervisory authority consider Meta's actions to be compliant with data protection regulations in the final assessment still pending, data subjects will only have option of filing objection or asserting their right to erasure as data subject.
Anyone without their own account can generally assert the right to erasure as a data subject but this requires that they have knowledge that a third party has posted their data publicly and, in practice, this is often not the case.
On Apr. 15, GE HH DP warned of Meta's use of personal data.
GE HH DP stated in German and English Meta is starting AI training with personal data.
On Apr. 16, 2025, GE MV DP said users should consider carefully about opting out, provided instructions on how to do so, recommended parents monitor family devices.
AI Training
Until now, Meta's AI has not been trained with Facebook, Instagram data of European users but this changes end May 2025 so if wanting to object need to act quickly.
Meta wants to use data of all adult European Facebook and Instagram users for training of own AI applications and the data will then be used to train company's AI-based services such as Meta-AI chatbot on WhatsApp or language models (eg Llama).
Postponement
Meta had already announced in 2024 that it would use all public posts and photos from its European Facebook and Instagram users for AI training, but Meta then postponed project after IRE DP approached company with data protection issues, see #216120.
Procedure now in place makes it easier to object to use of personal data for AI training.
Registered users of Facebook and Instagram must now decide whether the company may train AI models with their personal data (posts, photos, etc.).
This applies not only to the future, but also to all data from the past.
If an individual has no concerns about your publicly accessible posts, comments and photos in their own account being used for AI training, they don't have to do anything.
If want to prevent own data being used by Meta for AI training purposes must act now.
European users of legal age will be notified by Meta and informed of their options.
Objections
Individuals can object in the respective apps for Facebook and Instagram.
For the objection to take full effect, it must be lodged before the end of May 2025.
Note that although it is possible to object at any time after this date, it will no longer be possible to undo that your data has already been used for AI training.
Training data is irrevocably incorporated into AI models and its influence can no longer be removed from the model according to the current state of the art.
Apr. 17, 2025 GE NI DP Comment
On Apr. 17, 2025, GE NI DP also opined that Meta's planned use of EU user data requires the prior consent of users and affected third parties due to its significant relevance under data protection law and the diverse nature of the cases.
Should competent Irish supervisory authority consider Meta's actions to be compliant with data protection regulations in the final assessment still pending, data subjects will only have option of filing objection or asserting their right to erasure as data subject.
Anyone without their own account can generally assert the right to erasure as a data subject but this requires that they have knowledge that a third party has posted their data publicly and, in practice, this is often not the case.
