Ahluwalia said he thinks anyone training their models or using people's data should get permission. He mentioned EU AI regulations make it very clear that companies obtain consent from users before using data for AI training, and the specific purpose of training is communicated.
Opt-out settings vary between platforms, and not all platforms offer the option to opt out. Most details on how platforms use your data are buried in privacy policies and terms of services.
Here are some social media platforms with more than 100 million users on top social media site lists such as SemRush and Sprout Social.
To stop Discord from training their AI on your data, go to "Privacy & Safety" under "User Settings" on the left side. Scroll to "How we use your data" section. Turn "use data to improve Discord" and "use data to customize my Discord experience" off.
LinkedIn also lets users opt out of training AI models with their data. They posted FAQs outlining how they used personal data for generative AI.
Click on the "Me" tab at the top of the screen. Select "Settings & Privacy," and then the "Data Privacy" tab on the left column to opt out. Then select "Data for Generative AI Improvement" under "How LinkedIn uses your data." Toggle the button to off.
When you select this option, LinkedIn and its affiliates will no longer use your data for AI models moving forward. However, this does not affect previous training before you selected this option.
Meta states in its privacy policy that it might use public Facebook and Instagram posts, comments, profile photos and audio to train AI systems -- including its AI chatbot.
If you do not want to share your information, make your account private. If you belong to any public groups, any posts you make and share might also be used to train.
To make your account private on Facebook, adjust your privacy settings in the "Audience and visibility" section of "Settings & privacy." Select "Friends" or "Only Me" instead of "Public" in "Followers and public content."
Click on the privacy settings instructions for the other Meta apps to learn how to make the following accounts private:
Reddit is a little trickier because it is a public platform, and AI will crawl its forums similar to other websites. Reddit states in its privacy policy when users submit content it is a public part of services, and the content might also be available in search results and provided in AI chatbot answers. The privacy policy also states, "You should take the public nature of the Services into consideration before posting."
Users cannot opt out of not sharing public posts because of the nature of the platform, but private messages and posts in private communities are not shared with third parties. Reddit has deals to share platform data with Google and OpenAI to help train AI models.
Read more about Reddit's other privacy settings.
Snapchat has an AI chatbot and a "My Selfie" feature that lets users turn their selfies into AI-generated images. These images can be turned into advertisements and used to develop and train machine learning models as stated in Snapchat's terms of service.
To turn off the My Selfie feature, go to "Settings" then "My Account." Select the "My Selfie" feature and toggle "See My Selfie in Ads" to off. This will prevent your image from being used in AI-generated images for sponsored content.
To clear data from the My AI chatbot used for personalized ads and Snap products, go to "privacy controls" and select "clear data." There is a "Clear My AI Data" option.
TikTok offers private and public accounts. However, there is not much engagement with private accounts. It does use generative AI features on its platform. Learn how to adjust privacy settings on TikTok by reading their account settings.
Tumblr states it discourages "crawlers" from getting information off of its site. However, Tumblr reportedly has agreements with OpenAI and Midjourney to have access to information for their AI models.
To opt out, go to blog settings, then click "visibility." Toggle the "prevent third-party sharing" to "off." For multiple blogs, you will have to complete this step for each.
X updated its terms and services that go into effect on Nov. 15, 2024. The new terms of service state, "You agree that this license includes the right for us to analyze text and other information you provide and to provide, promote, and improve the Services, including, for example, for use with and training of our machine learning and artificial intelligence models, whether generative or another type." This means that continuing to post on X allows them to use your data to train their AI models.
If you do not want your data used to train the AI chatbot -- Grok -- you must opt out. Go to "Settings." Select "Privacy and safety." Under "Data sharing and personalization" there is a tab for "Grok." Toggle the option to "off."