Ireland’s data protection authority DPC is taking Twitter International Unlimited, the operating company behind social network X (formerly Twitter), to court over data protection concerns. The bone of contention, therefore, is that X is said to have collected and used data from EU users to train the AI Grok without asking. In their suit filed in the Irish High Court on Tuesday, the privacy advocates are asking that the use of this personal data be banned, suspended or at least restricted.
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Data protection officers complain loudly that X has not complied with its data protection obligations under the GDPR The Irish Times report. The planned launch of the next version of Grok in August – possibly with EU user data in the training materials used – is also causing concern for observers. The social network rejected a request to stop processing personal data or at least postpone the publication of the next Grok version.
X finds this approach “unfair”
X has introduced measures such as opt-out mechanisms, which did not exist at the beginning of data collection. However, the processing of a large number of users’ data continues and is still ongoing without ensuring the timely and effective protection required by the GDPR. Because the situation was urgent, the data protection authorities decided to go to court. They also want to submit the case to the European Data Protection Board for review. The DPC is in charge in this case because X’s EU headquarters are in Ireland.
X spokespeople denied the allegations. “The order sought by the Irish Data Protection Authority is unreasonable, overly broad and singles out X without any justification.” A tweet from the “Global Government Affairs Team” says The company. Ultimately, the court order will apply not only to Grok, but to all AI models used by X/Twitter. This could also affect the security guarantees on the platform and the ability of X to offer services in the EU. In addition, since the end of 2023, X has worked in a completely transparent manner with supervisory authorities, informing users about the use of data for AI training and creating control options over their own data.
Meta also fell on the nose
In September 2023, X introduced changed data protection guidelines in which the company agreed to use user data for AI training. However, the opt-out option became known only in July. In browser view you can find it after logging in via the drop-down menu under “More” in Settings and Data Protection > Data Protection and Security > Grok. Alternatively via Click on this link,
Competitor Meta previously wanted to collect data as standard for AI training in the EU, but was unable to do so. After protests, the Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) put the whole matter on hold. Meta initially does not want to introduce new AI models in the EU.
(AXK)
