You only have until June 26, 2024 to say no to Meta taking your personal photos and words and using them to train their generative AI. Here are step-by-step directions for opting out.
I dunno. I like seeing my friends' kids graduations, notices of parents' deaths, birthdays... and it's still a good tool for writers as the book sections of newspapers (and newspapers themselves) disappear. It's such a conundrum.
I know but I see people once every ten years who I feel like I know, and I like that and think it's fake at the same time. But yes, I get to stay in touch with far flung friends. This is how they suck us in.
Yes! So glad! That's the only response we'll get for now. But unless you make your objections known, Meta will start scraping in a week. Outrageous, really.
THANK YOU! I never in ten million years would've had the patience to figure this out. How grotesque is Meta? Also: I did get an insane error message at the very end despite copying and pasting your line about data protection law; after I completed the OTP it said my prompt was too short, that it needed to be 100 characters. So I added a word or two and then it worked. Maybe it was because I initially left off the period at the end of the sentence and that made it short one character? In any case it was a fitting and ridiculous final attempt on their part to block the process.
Yes! That happened to me as well until I stole the line from MIT. I initially wrote something like, "Stop being assholes. Don't use my photos." That wasn't good enough.
Did you get this follow up email, though? Does this mean it was even more useless than we already suspected it would be? "Based on the information that you have provided to us, we are unable to identify any examples of your personal information in a response from one of Meta’s generative AI models. As a result, we cannot take further action on your request."
Omg no! I got a “we’re considering it” kind of email. They’re changing their response in real time!!???? Making you do the work to “find” examples of their theft, when who the fuck can do that??? Evil.
I first got the "we're considering it" autoreply and then got the follow up half an hour later! It is really evil and gross and the fact that any human there even created a process as Kafkaesque as the one you mapped out for us is shocking.
So now I understand there are TWO boiler plate responses. But you have made your objections known, and that’s all you can do for now as this makes its way through the courts for the next, oh, maybe decade or so? We might all be dead by then. Who knows?
I'm still waiting for an OTP code, but I'm concerned I submitted it too late-- are they on Eastern Time Zone, so if it's already Wed. June 26th in Eastern Time Zone, will that mean they'll never process this? Or will it be timed on MY time zone, aka Pacific Time Zone, therefore I got it in on time before Cinderella turned into a pumpkin? I now I just have to wait minutes or hours or days to find their reply in my Junk Folder (I don't have a "Spam" folder, I'm on MacMail on a VERY old MacBookPro on very old Firefox (also overwhelmed with 49 months of Long COVID illness and disability :(
Thanks again.
(Btw, even tho I paid for a full year subscription, I can't "LIKE" anyone's comments? OK, enuf for now, gotta sleep and will look for replies later, or maybe on my iPhone later? Don't have email on my iPhone though... Aarrrggghhh!)
I got that same “…we cannot take further action on your request." follow-up as well. Basically they are telling us “so sorry. There’s nothing we can do since you can’t prove we hurt you”. They’ll get away with all of it.
Thanks for this. Interestingly, my friend in the UK, where they have stronger guardrails about personal info. being used, got this slightly different message:
"Thank you for contacting us. We are reviewing your request about your issue or objection with any personal information from third parties that may be used to train generative AI.
If you want to learn more about generative AI, and our privacy work in this new space, please review the information that we have in Privacy Centre."
I did your steps and had several hurdles…first they said the response had to be longer at least 100 words…so I typed your sentence of exert my right several times in a row..they accepted and sent me the number code. Then they sent me this… which I am not sure what to make of..assuming I have opted out of AI meta but 🤷🏻♀️
“Hi Keishya,
“Hi,
Thank you for contacting us.
Based on the information that you have provided to us, we are unable to identify any examples of your personal information in a response from one of Meta’s generative AI models. As a result, we cannot take further action on your request.
If you want to learn more about generative AI, and our privacy work in this new space, please review the information we have in the Privacy Center.
This is deliberate. Just know your name is now in a database of objectors. That’s all you can do for now as these issues make their way through the courts.
Excellent work! I got the 'We don’t automatically fulfill requests and we review them consistent with your local laws.' response, but I do like keeping their Privacy Operations Bots busy.
Like you, I do not completely turn my back on FB because it is still my link to old friends and family in the US, and for several groups.
OMG. Thank you so much, Deborah. I just managed to get it done, but your phrase was - get this - TOO SHORT! <eyeroll font>Meta wanted it longer.</eyeroll font> So I linked the paper I wrote in grad school in 2008 in the second box and a quote from it in the first after your phrase (although I substituted "harvested" for "processed." (The quote: “Although the public relies on the purveyors of information for information about the information economy, they are naturally reticent about informing the public about the nature of this process... Perelman, 1998).”
It looks like AI is updating their bogus boilerplate responses in real time. They are probably getting assaulted by requests now and making it more and more difficult to make them. But once you make the request, your objections have been duly noted. All we can do now is wait for the laws to catch up.
Thank you! I followed your instructions to the letter - and got tripped up at the last entry as copyng the MIT text was 1 character short - META said entry must be 100 characters. As copied it was only 99. So I added the word "all" before "my rights"
Now I am wondering about whether this opt out preference 'registry' covers all Meta apps-- specifically, does it include WhatsApp, or would that be a separate setting within WhatsApp? Hoping someone on this comment thread can answer. WhatsApp recently rolled out a new Ask Meta AI "feature" /button/instrusion that I hadn't noticed until today.
You rock. Maybe we should just quit FB and IG altogether? What is is really doing for us? xo
I dunno. I like seeing my friends' kids graduations, notices of parents' deaths, birthdays... and it's still a good tool for writers as the book sections of newspapers (and newspapers themselves) disappear. It's such a conundrum.
I know but I see people once every ten years who I feel like I know, and I like that and think it's fake at the same time. But yes, I get to stay in touch with far flung friends. This is how they suck us in.
Thanks! I got the “we don’t automatically fulfill requests”… nonsense. But it’s a start! Thanks for the spot on directions!
Yes! So glad! That's the only response we'll get for now. But unless you make your objections known, Meta will start scraping in a week. Outrageous, really.
Not all heroes wear capes. Thanks for looking out for us!
lol!
THANK YOU! I never in ten million years would've had the patience to figure this out. How grotesque is Meta? Also: I did get an insane error message at the very end despite copying and pasting your line about data protection law; after I completed the OTP it said my prompt was too short, that it needed to be 100 characters. So I added a word or two and then it worked. Maybe it was because I initially left off the period at the end of the sentence and that made it short one character? In any case it was a fitting and ridiculous final attempt on their part to block the process.
Yes! That happened to me as well until I stole the line from MIT. I initially wrote something like, "Stop being assholes. Don't use my photos." That wasn't good enough.
Did you get this follow up email, though? Does this mean it was even more useless than we already suspected it would be? "Based on the information that you have provided to us, we are unable to identify any examples of your personal information in a response from one of Meta’s generative AI models. As a result, we cannot take further action on your request."
Omg no! I got a “we’re considering it” kind of email. They’re changing their response in real time!!???? Making you do the work to “find” examples of their theft, when who the fuck can do that??? Evil.
I first got the "we're considering it" autoreply and then got the follow up half an hour later! It is really evil and gross and the fact that any human there even created a process as Kafkaesque as the one you mapped out for us is shocking.
So now I understand there are TWO boiler plate responses. But you have made your objections known, and that’s all you can do for now as this makes its way through the courts for the next, oh, maybe decade or so? We might all be dead by then. Who knows?
I'm still waiting for an OTP code, but I'm concerned I submitted it too late-- are they on Eastern Time Zone, so if it's already Wed. June 26th in Eastern Time Zone, will that mean they'll never process this? Or will it be timed on MY time zone, aka Pacific Time Zone, therefore I got it in on time before Cinderella turned into a pumpkin? I now I just have to wait minutes or hours or days to find their reply in my Junk Folder (I don't have a "Spam" folder, I'm on MacMail on a VERY old MacBookPro on very old Firefox (also overwhelmed with 49 months of Long COVID illness and disability :(
Thanks again.
(Btw, even tho I paid for a full year subscription, I can't "LIKE" anyone's comments? OK, enuf for now, gotta sleep and will look for replies later, or maybe on my iPhone later? Don't have email on my iPhone though... Aarrrggghhh!)
I got that same “…we cannot take further action on your request." follow-up as well. Basically they are telling us “so sorry. There’s nothing we can do since you can’t prove we hurt you”. They’ll get away with all of it.
Thanks for this. Interestingly, my friend in the UK, where they have stronger guardrails about personal info. being used, got this slightly different message:
"Thank you for contacting us. We are reviewing your request about your issue or objection with any personal information from third parties that may be used to train generative AI.
If you want to learn more about generative AI, and our privacy work in this new space, please review the information that we have in Privacy Centre."
That’s close to what I got if not the same. I’m out for a walk right now will check when I’m back.
YOU ARE DOING GOD'S WORK
I’m trying.
Thank you, thank you! I have shared.
I did your steps and had several hurdles…first they said the response had to be longer at least 100 words…so I typed your sentence of exert my right several times in a row..they accepted and sent me the number code. Then they sent me this… which I am not sure what to make of..assuming I have opted out of AI meta but 🤷🏻♀️
“Hi Keishya,
“Hi,
Thank you for contacting us.
Based on the information that you have provided to us, we are unable to identify any examples of your personal information in a response from one of Meta’s generative AI models. As a result, we cannot take further action on your request.
If you want to learn more about generative AI, and our privacy work in this new space, please review the information we have in the Privacy Center.
How Meta uses information for generative AI: https://www.facebook.com/privacy/genai
Thank you for your inquiry,
Privacy Operations”
This is deliberate. Just know your name is now in a database of objectors. That’s all you can do for now as these issues make their way through the courts.
Thank you for your step by step howto guide…plus bringing the awareness to us all that this is even ‘thing’ we have ability to stop…or try to stop!
Excellent work! I got the 'We don’t automatically fulfill requests and we review them consistent with your local laws.' response, but I do like keeping their Privacy Operations Bots busy.
Like you, I do not completely turn my back on FB because it is still my link to old friends and family in the US, and for several groups.
Thank you!
OMG. Thank you so much, Deborah. I just managed to get it done, but your phrase was - get this - TOO SHORT! <eyeroll font>Meta wanted it longer.</eyeroll font> So I linked the paper I wrote in grad school in 2008 in the second box and a quote from it in the first after your phrase (although I substituted "harvested" for "processed." (The quote: “Although the public relies on the purveyors of information for information about the information economy, they are naturally reticent about informing the public about the nature of this process... Perelman, 1998).”
(Here's a link to the paper, if you're curious: https://thesentencefactory.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/lis661finalpaper.pdf )
It looks like AI is updating their bogus boilerplate responses in real time. They are probably getting assaulted by requests now and making it more and more difficult to make them. But once you make the request, your objections have been duly noted. All we can do now is wait for the laws to catch up.
Done! And yes that saved a shit ton of work. I had no prompts saying "too short" so I don't know what happened to the other folks with this problem.
Thank you for this.
I've spent my last two days in Meta purgatory so you don't have to. lol.
Thank you, that made it easy!
You're welcome!
Thank you for leading the way and making this easier for the rest of us!
No problem!
Thank you! I followed your instructions to the letter - and got tripped up at the last entry as copyng the MIT text was 1 character short - META said entry must be 100 characters. As copied it was only 99. So I added the word "all" before "my rights"
They keep moving the goalpost.
Thank you for doing this. I had no idea.
Now I am wondering about whether this opt out preference 'registry' covers all Meta apps-- specifically, does it include WhatsApp, or would that be a separate setting within WhatsApp? Hoping someone on this comment thread can answer. WhatsApp recently rolled out a new Ask Meta AI "feature" /button/instrusion that I hadn't noticed until today.
Covers all of their products. Not that they seem to be honoring our requests to opt-out. But at least we made our objections known.
Thank you so much.
I closed my Facebook account a few years ago so I am afraid they will take what I so blithely post then. Rats!
Keep up the good work, please. I look forward to reading everything you write.
Thank you!
Thank you! I got the same mealy-mouthed email in response
Boilerplate language. You've made your objections known. That's all you can do for now.