Meta back at it, harvesting Britons' public Facebook, Insta feeds for AI training

Meta is going to resume scraping the personal public feeds of British Facebook and Instagram users for training AI after reaching an agreement with the UK's Information Commissioner's Office (ICO). This summer, Meta agreed to stop using historical data from British and EU users of its platforms to train machine-learning …

[Dan 55]

ICO

It's difficult to think of a more toothless watchdog, and there are lots to choose from.

I don't remember The Reg picking up on this, but it some of the UK press implemented Pay or Okay and the ICO did nothing in response. At least the national EU regulators explicitly allowed Pay or Okay first. The ICO wrote to them stating it was not allowed and was just ignored.

[UnknownUnknown]

Re: ICO

Yes. Capitulation with British Airways over their mega-breach was bordering gross negligence/misconduct in a public office.

The only agreement with Facebook on scraping personal info for AI training should be a bit fat *NO*.

[UnknownUnknown]

Re: ICO

Ofcom come to mind. Oh and Ofwat., and Ofgem.

[Vometia has insomnia. Again.]

Re: ICO

They all sound like they use the same naming convention as the breeding women in The Handmaid's Tale. I have to wonder if that's coincidental.

[Donchik]

What happens if you're tagged by a 3rd party?

How do I object to the scraping?

[Yorick Hunt]

Simple, don't have an account with the leeches to start with. Going over to said third party's house with an educational 4x2 or baseball bat (depending on your geo-ethnic preferences) for a session of clue infusion would also improve your privacy.

[Richard 12]

It's impossible not to have a Facebook profile.

Even if you never create an account, your data gets harvested from a billion websites without your permission.

The only solution is for the EU to actually apply the penalties, but that takes a very long time.

[Sorry that handle is already taken.]

You can block Meta domains and scripts. I don't know how much it helps but it helps.

[Doctor Syntax]

"don't have an account "

Maybe you didn't understand "3rd party".

[Yorick Hunt]

Maybe you didn't understand "clue infusion?"

[spireite]

ICO

In reality...

I Can't Object

because that is how genuinely incapable they are.

[Anonymous Coward]

I see ... Oh !!!

The ICO is a placeholder.

It occupies the place a watchdog would be if they were real and had real power.

It is the legal equivalent of a 'Cardboard cutout'

:)

['arold]

ok, I'm an old fart...

But so f**king what???? Seriously, if people want to tell the world "how they feel" on that shite, and sit there waiting for likes, they've shared their data with the world.

I don't like Facebook (made a ton from their shares admittedly), but they're just an asshole corp making money from an asshole public - that wants to share shit for free, then somehow be protected about what they shared.

[Anonymous Coward]

they're just an asshole corp making money from an asshole public

@'arold

this.

those twats that downvoted you are the Reddit bunch.

"they're just an asshole corp making money from an asshole public "

BOFH. We are what they forced us to be. We, throughout history, have worked tirelessly for the betterment of our fellow humans and they are still primates. We just dont need their manual work anymore. They are a plague upon us worse than any Pharoah faced.

For is it not written, "Nothing is as evil as stupid."

Go full BOFH. Im not even joking. When I first read about him 20+years ago (and then went back through EVERY article he has published!) I laughed at thought this reminds me of some of the sys admin boys I know. But over the years I have come to realise that doing the task of admining the sys elevates the mind of that admin. They are living on a higher plain.

And with much work and dedication, I feel confident to say that I have attained pure BOFH-dom. You can too. We have a Win3.1 networked machine running early Apache waiting for you.

['arold]

Re: they're just an asshole corp making money from an asshole public

> those twats that downvoted you are the Reddit bunch.

Ah, now it's clear!

I was assuming they were all chumps that had overshared on Facebook :D

[Blogitus Maximus]

Objection!

This is the form to fill in to object

https://www.facebook.com/help/contact/6359191084165019

*HOWEVER*

Even when saying they'll respect the request their response, imho belies the fact they've already grabbed everything they want and anything already learned cannot be 'unlearned'.

Here's their response:

"We’ve reviewed your request and will honor your objection. This means your request will be applied going forward.

If you want to learn more about generative AI, and our privacy work in this new space, please review the information we have in Privacy Center.

facebook.com/privacy/genai"

Note the key phrasing "This means your request will be applied going forward."

They aren't to be trusted, going forward or backward for that matter.

[CowHorseFrog]

Re: Objection!

No the problem started by being on FB in the first place. If you dont use FB theres nothing for them to steal.

[EricM]

Re: Objection!

True, but not "being on FB" (I am not) does not even allow you to opt out of whatever data and meta-data they already have about you for example by scraping phone directories of Whatsapp users.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Objection!

"scraping phone directories of Whatsapp users."

And this is why I dont not have any friends ... that use Whatsapp. But there are people that have my number and are on WhatsApp so I

m tagged for sure.

Facebook is an angel compared to the low-rent whore that is WhatsShatAllOverYourSoulSon

[CowHorseFrog]

Re: Objection!

Its almost like your complaining that you get burnt if you put your hand in the fire...

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: does not even allow you to opt out

True but blocking at your firewall, all the several thousand IP addresses 'owned' by Zuckfart is a good start. There are lists of them on the internet. Add in Musk and Google and the amount of slurping of your network is almost entirely eliminated.

You can take it down even more by blocking (selectively) AWS and AZURE.

It really does pay you to monitor the outgoing traffic from your network. The aforementioned barstewards are really devious little shits.

[Woodnag]

Re: Objection!

Not true, if a FB account user tags you in a group photo.

[nsld]

The ultimate AI racist uncle

Given the content on UK Facebook this AI is going to find the UK is a massive racist uncle ranting against the elite, the WEF, immigrants, the woke, and that everything is communist...

The last place you want to train an AI on for the 'culture and idioms' of a country is the bin fire that is Facebook...

But if you want to build an ad model engine that makes Cambridge Analytica look like rank amateurs then this is it, with the full approval of the ICO clown show...

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: The ultimate AI racist uncle

they have trained on that toilet-water data already and that is why everything from GPT3.5 onwards is retarded.

"[They] have built an ad model engine that makes ... "

I cant really convey the repulsion and bile levels I had when I a peak at inside one of the AI Ad models. I will try with the recipe:

Take 10 hours in a small office with many computers heating the room up in the summer without AC on a non-stop helldesk.

Mix with cancelled train as you get to the station.

Sprinkle in some twat with half ur IQ being your boss by pure chance

Add Windows Vista v1

McDonalds food not made from vegetables or meat with no calorific content a la STP's Famine character.

When cooked for 5 years, turn over 99.9pc of agency over to a model. You might not want this, rightly so, but there is no way you can survive in the modern world using just organic intelligence alone. The new Fusion sub-atomic prob engine from <SOME_COMPANY> looks amazing.

[graeme leggett]

Re: The ultimate AI racist uncle

No. the last place you want to train an AI on for the 'culture and idioms' of a country is Xitter.

[Anonymous Coward]

I wanna know, What you're feeling , Tell me what's on your mind

doubleplus thumbs up

[andy the pessimist]

They have 17 years of messages.

You could have messaged when drunk,teenager angry.

Then later you have grown up,found a job and have a relationship.

Somebody finds an old post and you get castigated for it.

And they put it into an AI. What will it do with two opposite views?

[Tron]

My public posts on Facebook are public.

Humans and non humans are free to read and learn from them as they wish.

That's what 'public' means.

quote: Somebody finds an old post and you get castigated for it.

Frankly, I won't give a damn. Worry less about what other people think of you.

[Michael Strorm]

Re: My public posts on Facebook are public.

> "My public posts on Facebook are public. [..] That's what 'public' means."

From the same company that always managed to mysteriously- and conveniently (for them)- reset people's existing preferences to default to more permissive public settings every time they changed them round?

And made those settings complicated and difficult to track- some would suggest intentionally so that users gave up trying to keep on top of them and left them on the defaults that suited Facebook?

Yeah, I'm willing to bet there's plenty of stuff out there that was never intended to be "public" that ended up being so anyway.

> "Frankly, I won't give a damn. Worry less about what other people think of you."

Well, aren't *you* the enlightened rebel with your affectedly-blasé attitude and life lessons...

[Anonymous Coward]

If you post it on the net

Using your real name. Then, your mileage will vary.

Don’t use Facebook etc.

[EricB123]

Blast From the Past

Mr. Musk buying Twitter reminds me of another questionable acquisition in the past. Namely, Mr. Bozos' buying The Washington Post newspaper. Neither man was in it for the money.

[CowHorseFrog]

Re: Blast From the Past

Why are you calling them "Mr" ?

[Tubz]

Sir Nick Clegg, a sellout, weak willed, useless tool !