Facebook, a social networking platform owned by Meta, is asking users to upload photos from their mobile phones and suggest collages, summaries, and other ideas using artificial intelligence (AI).
According to TechCrunch, which first reported this feature, users are being provided with a new pop-up message asking for permission to “Allow cloud processing” when they are trying to create a new story on Facebook.
“To create an idea for you, select media from your camera roll and upload it continuously to the cloud based on information such as time, location, theme, etc.” “You can only see suggestions. Your media is not used to target your ads. Check for safety and integrity purposes.”
If a user agrees to a photo being processed in the cloud, Meta says he agrees to AI terminology. This allows you to analyze media and facial features.
On the help page, Meta states that “the feature is not available to anyone yet”, and is limited to US and Canadian users. He also pointed out to TechCrunch that these AI proposals are opt-in and could be disabled at any time.
This development is another example of how companies compete to integrate AI capabilities into their products, often at the expense of user privacy.
Meta says the new AI features will not be used for targeted ads, but experts still have concerns. When people upload personal photos or videos (even if they agree, it is unclear how long the data will remain and who will be able to see it. As processing takes place in the cloud, there is a risk, especially with hidden details such as facial recognition and time and place.
Even if it is not used for advertising, this type of data could ultimately be used to train a dataset or to build a user profile. It’s like passing a photo album to an algorithm that quietly learns your habits, preferences, and patterns over time.
Last month, Meta began training AI models using public data shared by adults on the European Union platform after receiving approval from the Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC). The company stopped using the generated AI tools in Brazil in July 2024 in response to privacy concerns raised by the government.
The social media giant has also added AI features to WhatsApp. The latest is the ability to summarise unread messages in chat using private processing using a privacy-focused approach.
Facebook’s AI feature has called on Apple and Google, one of Germany’s data protection watchdogs, to remove DeepSeek’s app from their respective app stores with illegal user data transfers to China, in accordance with similar concerns raised by several countries at the beginning of the year.
“According to a statement released for the protection of services and freedom of information, “The Service processes a wide range of personal data of users, including all text entries, chat history, uploaded files, locations, devices used, and information about the network. “The Service sends the collected personal data of users to a Chinese processor and stores it on a Chinese server.”
These transfers violate the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) because there is no guarantee that the data of Chinese German users is protected at a level equivalent to a block.
Earlier this week, Reuters reported that Chinese AI companies are supporting the country’s military and intelligence reporting activities and sharing user information with Beijing, citing an anonymous US State Department official.
A few weeks ago, Openai landed $200 million with the US Department of Defense (DOD) and “developed prototype frontier AI capabilities to address critical national security challenges in both the Warfighting and the Enterprise domain.”
The company said the Pentagon would help identify and prototype how Frontier AI can transform its management business, from getting healthcare for service members and their families to looking at programs and data acquisition and supporting active cyber defense.
This change is part of a larger trend in generation AI, where tech companies combine convenience and tracking. Features like automatic manufacturing collage and smart story suggestions may be useful, but they rely on AI to watch how you use your device, not just apps. As such, privacy settings, clear consent, and data collection restrictions are more important than ever.
Source link
