Affiliate links on Android Authority may earn us a commission. Learn more.
Don't want your Facebook posts used for AI? You can opt-out, but it isn't easy.
- Meta will use your data to train its AI models unless you explicitly opt out.
- Opting out, however, is a very convoluted process, which appears intentional in minimizing the number of users who don’t contribute to data scraping.
- We have steps included for opting out, but set aside a while to complete them.
It seems you can’t turn around without hearing about something related to AI these days. Being the latest buzzword, every large tech company is racing to get its feet in the AI waters, with sometimes hilarious (and scary) results, such as Google’s recent AI Overview snafus. The problem with generative AI, though, is that models need to train on something, and that invariably ends up being data created by you, me, and everyone you know.
Case in point: Meta is now scraping Facebook posts to train its AI model. While this isn’t surprising on its own, what is surprising is just how difficult Meta is making it for users to opt out of this process.
Over on X (formerly Twitter), user Tantacrul penned a lengthy series of posts describing just how many steps it takes just to tell Meta “no” when it comes to data scraping. One would have hoped there would be just a few steps — maybe logging in, navigating to an account page, and ticking a box. As Tantacrul shows, though, there are many more steps than that, including filling out forms.
While we can only speculate, it seems evident that Meta is making this process convoluted on purpose. The more complex the process is, the more likely it will be that people will give up and accept that Meta’s AI models will use their data, even if they don’t want it to. One of the steps, in particular — an OTP code sent to your email — seems so superfluous that the only logical conclusion is obfuscation.
Regardless, if you want to opt out of Meta’s data harvesting, here’s how.
Opt-out of Meta’s AI data harvesting on Facebook
- Look for a notification from Meta that says We’re planning new AI features for you. Learn how we use your information. Although the notification won’t give any instructions, you must tap/click it to get to the second step.
- Clicking the notification brings you to a Policy Updates notice. There’s only one button here — “Close” — but you don’t want to hit that because then you’ll accept the policy (very tricky, Meta). Instead, find the hyperlink text in the body of the update that says right to object and tap that.
- That right to object link takes you to a form. You must fill out every box in the form, which includes your country, email address, and even a section that asks you to tell Meta “how this processing impacts you.” Yes, you actually need to give Meta a descriptive reason why you don’t want it to scrape your personal data to train AI.
- When you submit the form, you’ll then be sent an email. This email will include a one-time password (OTP) that is valid for just one hour. You’ll need to find that email, copy the OTP, and then paste it into the box before that hour is up. Make sure you don’t close the Facebook window when going to your email, or else you’ll need to start all over again.
- When you enter the OTP successfully, you’ll receive an immediate response that Meta will “review your submission as soon as possible.” Note that this is not a confirmation that you’ve successfully opted out — just letting you know that Meta is looking into it.
- Assuming Meta deems it so, you should get an email later confirming you have opted out of the AI data scraping. Save this email, as it might be useful later.
Tantacrul posits that Meta is making this as difficult as possible for now because “legal safeguards aren’t in place yet to protect us against AI training, so [Meta is] pushing as far as possible, while [it] still can.” In other words, this process might change in the future, but if you want to get out as soon as possible, this is what you’ll need to do.