If you needed a reminder of how tricky the situation regarding AI and privacy is going to be for both lawmakers and businesses from now on, one has recently come from Brazil where the country’s National Data Protection Authority (ANPD) has clearly got issues with technology giant Meta's AI privacy policy.
Indeed, ANPD decided earlier this week to suspend with immediate effect the validity of Meta's new privacy policy involving the use of personal data to train generative artificial intelligence systems in the country.
According to Reuters, the processing of personal data across all Meta products, including those of people who are not users of its platforms, is now on hold.
Meta was given five working days from ANPD's decision to show it has amended its privacy policy to exclude the use of personal information found in public posts to train generative AI. There will be daily fines, estimated at some US$8,836.58, levied in case of non-compliance.
ANPD referred to the "imminent risk of serious and irreparable or difficult-to-repair damage to the fundamental rights of affected holders” to explain the move, though Meta has been quoted as saying it is "disappointed" by a decision that it regards a "setback for innovation". It also argues that its approach complies with privacy laws and regulations in Brazil.
A data privacy campaigner in Brazil, quotes by the BBC, has alleged that Meta had planned to use posts from Brazilian children and teenagers to train its AI models. This, it seems, is not permitted in Europe. However, a policy change through which users' information would be used to "develop and improve" Meta’s AI products is now on hold in Europe after the Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) on behalf of other European stakeholders asked Meta to delay its training of large language models (LLMs).
The policy change would have included posts, images, image captions, comments and stories that users over the age of 18 had shared with a public audience on Facebook and Instagram, but not private messages.
As for Brazil, ANPD says Meta will need to adapt its privacy policy to exclude the section related to the processing of personal data for generative AI training and offer an official statement saying it has suspended the processing of personal data for that purpose.
The BBC says Meta has a significant market in Brazil. There are 102 million Facebook users and more than 113 million Instagram users in the country, whose population is around 205 million.
