All the posts and photos you post on Facebook and Instagram, the comments you leave, the hashtags you use: Meta wants to use almost everything it does on its platforms to develop artificial intelligence (AI) tools.

This will happen starting June 26th. If you don’t want to, you can object. Meta will agree to all objections submitted by the Netherlands, the company told RTL News. The company does not answer the question about how many Dutch people have already objected.

In this video, AI expert Harm Teunis from RTL Nieuws explains what Meta is up to and why the company needs your data for this purpose:

The person who is actually using these AI tools is Eline Westervaarder. She enjoys using AI tools from other companies, but she doesn’t want Meta to suddenly use her Instagram photos for Meta’s own tools. she I posted a video about this topic on Instagram and received hundreds of comments.

“People seem to be very concerned about this,” she told RTL News. “I think a lot of people are only now realizing that Meta collects a lot of data about you. This has been going on for a long time. But now that it’s about your messages and photos, it’s becoming more tangible.”

Westervaarder also objected: she didn’t want elements of her photos to appear in photos made by other people. But she doesn’t have much confidence in that: “It feels like a wash,” she says. “Objecting gives me the feeling that I still have control over my data. But that may be a false sense of security.”

Meta says the company could use data from European users to create useful AI tools, similar to digital copywriters like ChatGPT And image makers like Midjourney. People can give commands to these tools, and then the software – based on previous text and images – creates new textures.

Mita wants to bring European culture with her

If Meta doesn’t use Facebook and Instagram posts from Europe, “important regional languages, cultures, or trending topics” from Europe will be missing from its AI tools, the company wrote.

In other words: the tools will understand Dutch less well and will be less able to write good Dutch texts. Another example: A request to draw a picture of the Eiffel Tower will not result in a photo of the building from Paris, but rather something that might look like the version from Las Vegas.

Meta’s text and image tools are currently available outside of Europe.

The way Meta announced five weeks ago that it would use all messages for its AI tools is not acceptable, says Eliaz Nasrallah, an AI expert. “You share things on Facebook or Instagram to say something to friends and family. Now Meta will use all those messages in a completely different way, because they want to launch a new product. I think it’s parasitic behavior.”

Nasrallah would have preferred that Meta ask every European user for permission. The fact that people are now forced to object is, for him, the opposite of the world. “It should be the other way around. Now, your entire online life is turning into a data source by default. That’s not our intention, but it’s already happening. And I have an ethical objection to that.”

Can Meta do this?

Meta says his approach complies with the law. The company says it has “legitimate interests” to use your Facebook and Instagram posts. In this way, the company says it complies with the privacy law resulting from the General Data Protection Regulation. Another legal basis that the company could have relied on was to seek permission.

Experts question Meta’s choice. They say it’s uncertain whether Meta complies with GDPR. “It seems to be mainly about financial interest,” says Jeff Oslos, a lecturer in information law at the University of Amsterdam. “Does this outweigh the privacy interests of all the Facebook and Instagram users whose data will soon be used?” His colleague Ljubiša Metekush: “We are not sure yet whether what Meta is doing is permissible or not. There is a possibility that Meta will be tested by European regulators.”

Artists also expressed their objections. This means they are affected not only on a personal level, but also on a professional level when Meta uses the work of illustrators, photographers and graphic designers, for example, for its AI tools.

“Coincidentally, as a photographer, I submitted an objection to both Facebook and Instagram this week,” says Marcel van Balken. “I am fundamentally opposed to the misuse of my original work in AI training models. I do not want my images to serve as a nutritional basis for other people to create new images based on them.”

Van Balken’s objection has now been approved, but he is not confident that his style will not be copied after all. This is not justified: if you object, Meta immediately indicates that your data can still be used.

“We may continue to process your information to develop and improve Meta’s AI, even if you object to or do not use our products and services,” the company wrote. This could happen, for example, if someone else posts a photo with you on Instagram. Meta also says it collects publicly available data from outside its platforms.

“If you Google my name, you’ll find my pictures too,” says Van Balken. “Meta could also use this, if those channels don’t intercept. The photographer is afraid they’ll escape my work.” “Mita’s position of power is immense. The genie cannot return to the bottle. This cannot be stopped.”

This is how you present the objection

Don’t you want Meta to use your messages and photos to train its AI models? Filing an objection is not difficult and you can do it Through this link For Instagram account, or this link For Facebook account. You can also do this from apps. The video at the top of this article shows you how to navigate to the form in Apps.

Meta requires you to indicate the impact of the use of your data to Meta AI. In practice, it does not matter what you fill in: Meta will fulfill every request of the Dutch people.

Shortly after submission, you will receive confirmation that your application will be accepted and your data will not be used to train Meta AI tools. But that’s not a guarantee: If an unobjectionable friend posts a photo of the two of you, for example, it can still be used for Meta’s AI tools.