Facebook Wants To Process Users’ Unpublished Photos

Facebook has begun requesting users’ permission to access their phone’s camera rolls to externally “process” unpublished photos for its AI tools. The social media would then suggest AI-edited versions of photos, collages, and other creative suggestions, as reported by tech news site TechCrunch.

Users from the US and Canada have reported that when creating a new story for the social media site, a screen pops up, asking them to opt into “cloud processing.” Cloud processing would necessitate that users’ personal photographs be stored and processed by external servers owned by Meta on an “ongoing basis.”

Facebook claims that the processed images won’t be used for targeted advertising. However, Meta’s terms of service state that the company has the right to “retain and use” any personalized information shared for its AI-training purposes.

“Once shared, you agree that Meta will analyze those images, including facial features, using AI. This processing allows us to offer innovative new features, including the ability to summarize image contents, modify images, and generate new content based on the image,” reads Meta’s AI terms regarding image processing.

Meta spokesperson Maria Cubeta told TechCrunch: “We’re exploring ways to make content sharing easier for people on Facebook by testing suggestions of ready-to-share and curated content from a person’s camera roll […] these suggestions are opt-in only and only shown to you – unless you decide to share them – and can be turned off at any time.”

Users have taken to other social media sites, like Reddit and Mastodon, to share their discontent with this new feature, although there hasn’t been any large-scale backlash.

The new feature comes as Facebook and parent company Meta continue to experiment with AI-powered tools to drive up engagement. At the beginning of the year, Meta scrapped its AI-powered profiles of fictional characters from Instagram and Facebook after the feature was met with backlash.