Meta Resumes AI Training on European User Data with Opt-Out Policy

Meta has resumed training its AI models on public content from European users, ending a months-long pause that followed regulatory pressure and complaints across the European Union.

The company announced the change in a blog post, saying that the move is crucial to making its AI assistant “more relevant and useful” for local users.

Meta says public Facebook and Instagram posts will help improve AI assistant — critics call move deceptive

The company said it will use public posts from adults on Facebook and Instagram, including likes, comments, and interactions with Meta AI. Private messages and content from minors are excluded, and users should start receiving notifications.

The AI training program is opt-out, which means people who don’t want Meta to use their information will have to submit a request through a dedicated form.

Meta delayed the launch of its AI assistant in Europe earlier this year because of legal uncertainty. The assistant, now rolled out across the region, relies heavily on localized training data — which Meta claims is vital for “capturing European cultural references, languages, and humor.”

NOYB: ‘Malicious consent trickery’

The opt-out policy Meta is using has been criticized by privacy watchdog None of Your Business (NOYB), which has accused the company of violating the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). NOYB founder Max Schrems said that Meta is relying on “malicious consent trickery,” burying the opt-out mechanism behind a hard-to-reach form.

“Meta is clearly trying to get away with using European data without proper consent,” Schrems said in a statement back in 2024. “The burden is entirely on users to object, and the process is designed to make that hard.”

On the other hand, Meta promises that it will be a smooth process if the user chooses the opt-out route.

“These notifications will also include a link to a form where people can object to their data being used in this way at any time. We have made this objection form easy to find, read, and use, and we’ll honor all objection forms we have already received, as well as newly submitted ones,” said the company.

Legal challenges likely

Meta says it has worked closely with The Data Protection Commission (DPC) in Ireland and received confirmation that its approach complies with GDPR requirements.

However, the European Data Protection Board has yet to issue a collective statement. Even with DPC’s blessing, legal challenges are to be expected, likely focusing on the opt-out nature of the data collection.