Brussels (Brussels Morning) – The privacy NGO noyb (“none of your business”) lodged a complaint against Meta in 11 European countries, including Belgium. Nyob asserts the company plans to exploit users’ data for an artificial intelligence (AI) program.
The Vienna-based NGO launched complaints in 11 European countries, including Belgium, in light of Meta’s methods to ‘illegally” use people’s data. Users of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, all possessed by Meta, have in recent days received notices informing them that the privacy policy is once again altering.
What Concerns Does noyb Raise About Meta’s Privacy Policy?
While most people will likely have assumed the changes without blinking an eye, nyob warned that the changes pose threats to their privacy. It appears the company intends to use years of personal posts, private images or online tracking data for an indefinite ‘AI technology’ that can take personal info from any source and transfer any information with undefined ‘third parties’.
“Meta is saying that it can use ‘any data from any source for any purpose and make it available to anyone in the world’, as long as it’s done via ‘AI technology’,” nyob’s Max Schrems stated. Users aren’t given any details about the purposes of the “AI technology” – which according to nyob is against the provisions of the GDPR.
“Meta doesn’t say what it will use the data for, so it could either be a simple chatbot, extremely aggressive personalised advertising or even a killer drone. Meta also says that user data can be made available to any ‘third party’ – which means anyone in the world.”
How Does Meta Plan to Utilize User Data for AI?
Accepting the change would permit Meta to take all public and non-public user data that it has gathered since 2007. “This includes the numerous ‘dormant’ Facebook accounts users barely interact with anymore – but which still possess huge amounts of personal data,” nyob stated.
It added that, instead of requesting users for consent through the opt-in option, Meta has claimed that it has a legitimate interest that “overrides the basic right to data protection and privacy of European users”.
What Legal Issues Does Meta’s Policy Raise According to noyb?
“The European Court of Justice has already made it clear that Meta has no ‘legitimate interest’ to override users’ right to data protection when it comes to advertising,” Schrems stated. “Yet the company is trying to use the same arguments for the training of undefined ‘AI technology’. It seems that Meta is once again blatantly ignoring the judgements of the CJEU.”
Nyob, therefore, filed objections against Meta in Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland and Spain, and is requesting the data protection authorities (DPAs) in these countries to undertake urgent procedures to stop this transition to the Meta privacy policy before it comes into force on 26 June 2024.
“The European Data Protection Board has already issued two such urgent decisions against Meta and the Irish Data Protection Commissioner. It is sad to see that this measure seems to be necessary again and again,” Schrems stated. The Norwegian DPA this week already issued a statement arguing that it is “doubtful” whether Meta’s approach is legal.
