Noyb threatens to sue Meta over AI training

Noyb has sent a ‘cease and desist’ letter to Meta, ordering the tech company to stop training its large language models (LLMs) with data of European Facebook and Instagram users. The Austrian privacy advocacy group says it’s willing to take legal action if Meta refuses to listen.

According to the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), to use personal data of European Facebook and Instagram users, Meta must have a solid legal basis. For this, the company is claiming it has a ‘legitimate interest’ to process data of European users.

However, a plethora of non-governmental organizations (NGOs), data protection authorities (DPAs), and data protection experts claim that Meta doesn’t meet the legal requirements to evoke ‘legitimate interest.’ Instead, the tech company should ask users for their consent to use their personal data for AI training purposes.

In addition, Meta will most likely also be unable to comply with other fundamental rights that are dictated in the GDPR, including the right of access to personal information (article 15), the right to rectification (article 16), and the right to be forgotten (article 17).

“The European Court of Justice has already held that Meta cannot claim a ‘legitimate interest’ in targeting users with advertising. How should it have a 'legitimate interest' to suck up all data for AI training?,” Max Schrems, Chair of Noyb, wonders in a statement.

According to Schrems, the legal solution is simple: Meta would have to ask users for an opt-in consent instead of an opt-out objection to use their personal data for AI training. But instead, Meta seems to ignore all warnings from NGOs and DPAs and keeps on moving ahead.

To protect European Facebook and Instagram users from Meta’s AI training purposes, Noyb is considering filing a lawsuit against the company. If injunctions are filed and won, Meta may also be liable for damages to users, which could be brought in a separate EU class action lawsuit. In that case, damages could reach over €200 billion.

Recently, the Verbraucherzentrale North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) officially requested Meta to stop its AI training plans in the EU. Like Noyb, the German consumer organization is considering taking legal action against Meta.

Privacy regulators from Belgium, France, and the Netherlands have called on users to object to Meta’s AI training plans as soon as possible. Schrems says it’s a shame they refuse to do more to protect European users.

“The authorities in turn seem to just stay silent, telling users to protect themselves. We are witnessing how data protection authorities lose more and more relevance and NGOs have to take action before the courts,” Schrems pinpoints.