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 1. Pro
 2. Security

The LinkedIn AI saga shows us the need for EU-like privacy
regulations

Features
By Chiara Castro
published 20 September 2024

LinkedIn does not use European users' data for training its AI

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In this photo illustration, the business and employment-oriented
network and platform owned by Microsoft, LinkedIn, logo seen
displayed on a smartphone with an Artificial intelligence (AI) chip
and symbol in the background.
(Image credit: Photo Illustration by Budrul Chukrut/SOPA Images/
LightRocket via Getty Images)

If you are on LinkedIn, you might have come across users complaining
about the platform using their data to train a generative AI tool
without their consent.

People began noticing this change in the settings on Wednesday,
September 18, when the Microsoft-owned social media platform started
training its AI on user data before updating its terms and
conditions.

LinkedIn certainly isn't the first social media platform to begin
scraping user data to feed an AI tool without asking for consent
beforehand. What's curious about the LinkedIn AI saga is the decision
to exclude the EU, EEA (Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway), and
Switzerland. Is this a sign that only EU-like privacy laws can fully
protect our privacy?

The EU backlash against AI training

Before LinkedIn, both Meta (the parent company behind Facebook,
Instagram, and WhatsApp) and X (formerly known as Twitter) started to
use their users' data to train their newly launched AI models. While
these social media giants initially extended the plan also to
European countries, they had to halt their AI training after
encountering strong backlash from EU privacy institutions. 

Let's go in order. The first to test out the waters were Facebook and
Instagram back in June. According to their new privacy policy - which
came into force on June 26, 2024 - the company can now use years of
personal posts, private images, or online tracking data to train its
Meta AI.

Did you know?

A phone on a table showing the Facebook and Instagram logos

(Image credit: Shutterstock / mundissima)

Last week, Meta admitted to having used people's public posts to
train AI models as far back as 2007.

After Austria's digital rights advocacy group Noyb filed 11 privacy
complaints to various Data Protection Authorities (DPAs) in Europe,
the Irish DPA requested that the company pause its plans to use EU/
EEA users' data.

Meta was said to be disappointed about the decision, dubbing it a
"step backward for European innovation" in AI, and decided to cancel
the launch of Meta AI in Europe, not wanting to offer "a second-rate
experience."

Something similar occurred at the end of July when X automatically
enabled the training of its Grok AI on all its users' public
information - European accounts included.   

Just a few days after the launch, on August 5, consumer organizations
filed a formal privacy complaint with the Irish Data Protection
Commission (DPC) lamenting how X's AI tool violated GDPR rules. The
Irish Court has now dropped the privacy case against X as the
platform agreed to permanently halt the collection of EU users'
personal data to train its AI model.

While tech companies have often criticized the EU's strong regulatory
approach toward AI - a group of organizations even recently signed an
open letter asking for better regulatory certainty on AI to foster
innovation - privacy experts have welcomed the proactive approach.

The message is strong - Europe isn't willing to sacrifice its strong
privacy framework.

    So, LinkedIn joined other predatory platform intermediaries in
    grabbing everyone's user-generated content for generative AI
    training by default--except in GDPR land.Seems like the GDPR and
    European data protection regulators are really the only effective
    antidote here globally. pic.twitter.com/8shCd5AWRUSeptember 18,
    2024

Despite LinkedIn having now updated its terms of service, the silent
move attracted strong criticism around privacy and transparency
outside Europe. It's you, in fact, who must actively opt-out if you
don't want your information and posts to be used to train the new AI
tool.

As mentioned earlier, both X and Meta used similar tactics when
feeding their own AI models with users' personal information, photos,
videos, and public posts.

Nonetheless, according to some experts, the fact that other companies
in the industry act without transparency doesn't make it right to do
so. 

"We shouldn't have to take a bunch of steps to undo a choice that a
company made for all of us," tweeted Rachel Tobac, ethical hacker and
CEO of SocialProof Security. "Organizations think they can get away
with auto opt-in because 'everyone does it'. If we come together and
demand that organizations allow us to CHOOSE to opt-in, things will
hopefully change one day."

How to opt-out from LinkedIn AI training

Screenshot of LinkedIn settings on AI training

(Image credit: Future)

As explained in the LinkedIn FAQs (which, at the time of writing,
were updated one week ago): "Opting out means that LinkedIn and its
affiliates won't use your personal data or content on LinkedIn to
train models going forward, but does not affect training that has
already taken place."

In other words, the data already scraped cannot be recovered, but you
can still prevent the social media giant from using more of your
content in the future.

Doing so is simple. All you need to do is head to the Settings menu
and select the Data Privacy tab. As the image below shows, once there
you'll see that the Data for Generative AI improvement feature is On
by default. At this point, you need to click on it and disable the
toggle button on the right. 

Chiara Castro
Chiara Castro
Social Links Navigation
   
Senior Staff Writer

Chiara is a multimedia journalist committed to covering stories to
help promote the rights and denounce the abuses of the digital side
of life--wherever cybersecurity, markets and politics tangle up. She
mainly writes news, interviews and analysis on data privacy, online
censorship, digital rights, cybercrime, and security software, with a
special focus on VPNs, for TechRadar Pro, TechRadar and Tom's Guide.
Got a story, tip-off or something tech-interesting to say? Reach out
to chiara.castro@futurenet.com

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