The launch of Meta’s new Muse Image tool has brought renewed scrutiny to a systemic privacy issue: the “consent on” default setting for AI training on social media. This release marks a significant shift from using data for general model improvements to a more personal and potentially invasive application of generative AI.
“While past AI developments mostly worked out of sight, Muse Image changes the game by letting users directly reference public Instagram accounts to create images using data from those posts. This shift turns the ‘consent on’ default into a critical privacy risk, as individuals have no way of knowing when their personal photos are being harvested as source material for someone else’s AI-generated content,” says Luís Costa, Research and Insights Team Lead at Surfshark.
According to a recent Surfshark study, nearly all major social media platforms prioritize AI development over user privacy by default, using active data collection for model training.
The study found that 8 out of the 10 most popular social media platforms set AI training consent to “on” by default. This “opt-out” rather than “opt-in” model means that unless users proactively navigate complex settings and forms to revoke access, their years of posts, photos, and even private interactions have likely already been integrated into training sets.
“If you’ve ever shared content on social media, it’s highly likely that your photos are already being exploited as a resource for AI training without your clear consent. Our findings revealed that because platforms lack user-friendly opt-out options, much of this data usage is effectively irreversible. Opting out today only prevents future collection, but it cannot undo the training that has already occurred,” says Costa.
The issue of using user content for AI training is also highlighted by other social media platforms, most notably Reddit, which offers no option to opt out of AI model training. Its vast forum discussions are openly used for global AI development, highlighted by contracts with Google and OpenAI to license this user-generated data. In contrast, Discord stands out as the singular exception among the 10 platforms examined. It explicitly states that it does not use user data for AI training.
For the complete research material behind this study, click here.
Note that the IT Nerd has covered mitigating this privacy breach here.
Guest Post: Meta’s Muse Image release highlights “consent on” crisis in AI training on social media
Posted in Commentary with tags Surfshark on July 10, 2026 by itnerdThe launch of Meta’s new Muse Image tool has brought renewed scrutiny to a systemic privacy issue: the “consent on” default setting for AI training on social media. This release marks a significant shift from using data for general model improvements to a more personal and potentially invasive application of generative AI.
“While past AI developments mostly worked out of sight, Muse Image changes the game by letting users directly reference public Instagram accounts to create images using data from those posts. This shift turns the ‘consent on’ default into a critical privacy risk, as individuals have no way of knowing when their personal photos are being harvested as source material for someone else’s AI-generated content,” says Luís Costa, Research and Insights Team Lead at Surfshark.
According to a recent Surfshark study, nearly all major social media platforms prioritize AI development over user privacy by default, using active data collection for model training.
The study found that 8 out of the 10 most popular social media platforms set AI training consent to “on” by default. This “opt-out” rather than “opt-in” model means that unless users proactively navigate complex settings and forms to revoke access, their years of posts, photos, and even private interactions have likely already been integrated into training sets.
“If you’ve ever shared content on social media, it’s highly likely that your photos are already being exploited as a resource for AI training without your clear consent. Our findings revealed that because platforms lack user-friendly opt-out options, much of this data usage is effectively irreversible. Opting out today only prevents future collection, but it cannot undo the training that has already occurred,” says Costa.
The issue of using user content for AI training is also highlighted by other social media platforms, most notably Reddit, which offers no option to opt out of AI model training. Its vast forum discussions are openly used for global AI development, highlighted by contracts with Google and OpenAI to license this user-generated data. In contrast, Discord stands out as the singular exception among the 10 platforms examined. It explicitly states that it does not use user data for AI training.
For the complete research material behind this study, click here.
Note that the IT Nerd has covered mitigating this privacy breach here.
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