A new feature, currently being tested, asks Facebook users to access their phone’s camera roll to automatically suggest AI-edited versions of their photos. This feature also applies to photos that have not yet been uploaded to the network.
Bad news for Meta (Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp) users. After admitting to using all Facebook and Instagram posts since 2007 to train its AI models , Mark Zuckerberg’s company is now interested in photos you’ve never shared.
Indeed, as Techcrunch reports, several American Facebook users have noticed, while trying to post to their stories, messages asking them if they want to opt for “cloud processing.” This option would allow Facebook to “select media from your gallery and regularly upload it to (their) servers.” Facebook can then edit the images in the camera roll with AI or offer collages.
Unclear terms of use
However, by clicking “allow,” users agree to Meta AI’s terms of service. This allows the artificial intelligence to analyze “media and facial features” in these unpublished photos, as well as the date the photos were taken and the presence of other people or objects in them. Meta also has the right to retain and use this personal information, without clearly specifying the retention period or usage limits.
“We’re exploring ways to make it easier for Facebook users to share content by testing suggestions for curated, share-ready content from a person’s camera roll,” said company spokesperson Maria Cubeta.
However, “this test does not use user photos to improve or train our AI models,” Ryan Daniels, Meta’s head of public affairs, told The Verge .
Yet Meta’s AI terms of service, effective since June 2024, do not guarantee that these photos will never be used to train future models . Unlike Google, which explicitly commits not to use personal data from Google Photos for its generative AI , Meta remains deliberately vague.
However, users have the option to disable cloud processing in Facebook’s settings. This will gradually delete unpublished photos from the servers after 30 days.