On Monday, 12 August 2024, the Austrian privacy and digital rights group NOYB announced that it had filed 9 complaints with the data protection authorities (DPAs) in Austria, Belgium, France, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Spain and Poland against Elon Musk's X platform concerning the company's unlawful use of personal data belonging to more than 60 million users in the EU/EEA to train its artificial intelligence (AI) system, Grok.
The news comes days after the recent legal action taken by the Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) and the subsequent decision by X to pause the processing of personal data from the public posts of its EU/EEA users.
NOYB stated that it filed the complaints after the "half-hearted action" from the DPC, which NOYB argues was "mainly concerned with so-called "mitigation" measures" and does not go for the core violations. In a statement, NOYB honorary Chair Max Schrems said: "The court documents are not public, but from the oral hearing we understand that the DPC was not questioning the legality of this processing itself. It seems the DPC was concerned with so-called 'mitigation measures' and a lack of cooperation by Twitter. The DPC seems to take action around the edges, but shies away from the core problem."
In its latest complaints, NOYB argues with the introduction of its AI technologies, X has violated Articles 5(1), 5(2), 6(1), 9(1), 12(1), 12(2), 13(1), 13(2), 17(1)(c), 18(1)(d), 19, 21(1), and 25 of the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
Furthermore, the complaints claim that, as X had already begun processing data and there is no option to remove it, NOYB has called for an "urgency procedure" under Article 66 GDPR.
In related news, the Norwegian data protection authority (Datatilsynet) issued a statement on Thursday, 8 August 2024 about X and its apparent use of user posts for training its artificial intelligence (AI) technologies. While Datatilsynet is concerned, it recognises that the DPC has jurisdiction over the matter. Datatilsynet pledged to work closely with European counterparts and provide updates as the situation evolves. In an update on Monday, 12 August, following the announcement by the DPC that X had agreed to pause processing, Datatilsynet will continue to collaborate with European DPAs as the investigation continues.
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