Facebook is reportedly encouraging users to upload private photos and videos from their camera rolls to Meta’s cloud storage. Users are greeted with a pop-up message that appears when they attempt to share content in Stories, prompting them to grant access to their media. The social media platform suggests that this access will enable Meta’s AI to recommend personalized collages and AI-driven edits for sharing in Stories. However, the move could also permit the company to analyze facial recognition data as well as identify objects and individuals within those media files.
A report from TechCrunch indicates that some Facebook users have begun encountering this new pop-up while posting Stories. An image of the pop-up shared in the report reveals that Meta seeks access to photos on users’ devices to offer suggestions for collages, restyling options, and themed posts for significant occasions like birthdays or anniversaries.
For these AI-generated suggestions to take shape, users must consent to sharing unposted images and videos saved to their devices. The message explains, “To create ideas for you, we’ll select media from your camera roll and upload it to our cloud on an ongoing basis, based on info like time, location, or themes.”
In an effort to alleviate privacy concerns, the company claims that only users will view these suggestions and that their media will not be used for advertising purposes. Nevertheless, agreeing to these terms entails consent to Meta’s AI policy, which specifies that “Media and facial features can be analysed by Meta AI.” The AI models may also gather additional data, such as timestamps and information regarding the presence of people and objects.
Ryan Daniels, Meta’s public affairs manager, informed Technology News that unpublished photos and videos would not be utilized to train the company’s AI models. Furthermore, communications manager Maria Cubeta emphasized that participation in this feature is entirely optional, stating, “These suggestions are opt-in only and only shown to you – unless you decide to share them – and can be turned off at any time. Camera roll media may be used to improve these suggestions, but are not used to improve AI models in this test.”
The report notes that while the opt-in feature only allows Meta to access media from the last 30 days, suggestions related to broader themes such as pets or weddings may incorporate media older than that timeframe.
While the measures outlined by Meta appear to address potential privacy issues, there is a suggestion in the company’s language that the current policy regarding the use of users’ camera roll for AI training is only applicable during this testing phase. There has been no definitive commitment from Meta that it will refrain from training models on this media in future implementations.
