The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has responded to the formal complaint filed by the Open Rights Group (ORG) regarding Meta's use of personal data to train its AI models without consent.
In a letter dated 25 September, the ICO explained that it has engaged with Meta to address its concerns, resulting in the company pausing its plans and agreeing to make certain changes, including making it easier for users to opt-out. While Meta has now resumed its plans, the ICO noted that it had not granted regulatory approval for this action. The ICO is confident in its regulatory approach to addressing the issues raised by ORG and is open to further discussions on the matter. The ICO has also invited ORG to discuss their concerns on the matter.
In a related post, ORG outlines its issues with the ICO's overly-tolerant approach to AI training by social media platforms such as Meta's Facebook, Microsoft's LinkedIn, and Elon Musk's X, which contrasts sharply with the assertiveness of European Data Protection Authorities. ORG claims that such a lack of enforcement of consent requirements may benefit large companies at the expense of competition and law-abiding businesses. Furthermore, ORG argues that the permissive approach from the ICO is directly attributed to the underlying legal framework, which lacks a clear redress mechanism for challenging the enforcement (or lack thereof) decisions. With the Digital Information and Smart Data (DISD) Bill, the Labour Government has an opportunity to address these issues.
The news comes as The Guardian reports that Meta has launched its artificial intelligence (AI) assistant in the UK, along with AI-enhanced sunglasses. The AI assistant, capable of generating text and images, is now accessible on Meta's social media platforms, Facebook and Instagram, following regulatory delays in the UK. Meta stated that this latest rollout aims to assist individuals in finding answers to their queries, brainstorming content, and bringing their ideas to life, allowing them to easily share the results with their local network and the broader global community.
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