Brazil data regulator bans Meta from mining data to train AI models

RIO DE JANEIRO — Brazil’s national data protection authority determined on Tuesday that Meta, the parent company of Instagram and Facebook, cannot use data originating in the country to train its artificial intelligence. Meta said on its Brazilian blog in May that it could “use information that people have shared publicly about Meta’s products and services for some of our generative AI features,” which could include “public posts or photos and their captions.” Refusing to partake is possible, Meta said in that statement. Hye Jung Han, a Brazil-based researcher for the rights group, said in an email Tuesday that the regulator’s action “helps to protect children from worrying that their personal data, shared with friends and family on Meta’s platforms, might be used to inflict harm back on them in ways that are impossible to anticipate or guard against.” But the decision regarding Meta will “very likely” encourage other companies to refrain from being transparent in the use of data in the future, said Ronaldo Lemos, of the Institute of Technology and Society of Rio de Janeiro, a think-tank. “Meta was severely punished for being the only one among the Big Tech companies to clearly and in advance notify in its privacy policy that it would use data from its platforms to train artificial intelligence,” he said.