Noyb vs X: Illegal data collection for AI training

The Irish Data Protection Authority has begun legal proceedings against x. The platform has been collecting personal data for some time to train its AI models. Specifically, it is about the artificial intelligence of Elon Musk’s AI company xAI, which he founded in early 2023. This is not enough for the data protection association Noyb, they have filed complaints in nine EU countries.

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According to Noyb, the data is used without the consent of the people who wrote the posts on X. According to the association, X did not even inform users that their data would be used for AI training. In a blog post, data protection officials write that this concerns the data of about 60 million people in Europe. Although the responsible Irish Data Protection Authority (DPC) has begun proceedings, Noyb says the DPC is not ready to fully implement the GDPR. The DPC is considered favorable to large tech companies.

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Data processing requires consent – on Meta and X

Meta also recently tried to allow the use of public data from everyone on the Meta platform for its own AI training. After all, the company had given users notice and the opportunity to object. Although permission was granted from the Irish data protection authorities, other data protection authorities complained. Meta initially cancelled the project altogether after a request from the DPC.

X has been collecting data from the platform since May 2024 and using it to develop the AI ​​Grok. According to Noyb, the first court hearing took place last Thursday. Data protection officer Max Schrems writes in the article: “The court documents are not public, but from the oral hearings it appears that the DPA did not question the lawfulness of this processing. It seems that the DPC is satisfied with the so-called ‘risk prevention’ rather than the lack of cooperation criticised by X (formerly Twitter).”

Noyb hopes that as national data protection authorities become more involved, there will be more clarity about what happens to data already incorporated into AI models. And the basic question of consent becomes clearer. So far, the DPC has agreed with X to halt data collection until September. The GDPR requires informed consent to process data – data protection authorities require this.

(EMW)