Brazil orders Meta to stop training its AI on Brazilian personal data

The decision follows an update to Meta’s privacy policy in which the social media granted itself permission to use public Facebook, Messenger, and Instagram data from Brazil including posts, images, and captions for AI training.

After a report by Human Rights Watch revealed that LAION-5B, a large image-caption datasets used for training AI models, includes personal, identifiable photos of children in Brazil, exposing them to the risk of deepfakes and other forms of exploitation.

Data protection authority in Brazil (ANPD) has blocked Meta from training its AI models on Brazilian personal data, citing the risks of serious damage and difficulty to users.

Brazil’s National Data Protection Authority (ANPD) stated that the policy poses an imminent risk of serious and difficult-to-repair damage to the fundamental rights of users in Brazil.

The agency's notice gives Meta five working days to comply with the order or face daily fines of about USD 8,808.

Meta's response to the suspension

In response, Meta stated that its updated policy complies with privacy laws and regulations in Brazil, and described the ruling as a step backwards for innovation, competition in AI development, and further delays in bringing the benefits of AI to people in Brazil.

While Meta claims users can opt out of having their data used to train AI, ANPD argues that there are unjustified obstacles making this difficult.

Other sources also show that Meta has faced similar resistance from EU regulators, causing the social media player to pause plans to train its AI models on European Facebook and Instagram posts. On the other hand, Meta’s updated data collection policies are already in effect in the US.