The X platform is facing legal accountability from the European data protection watchdog for exploiting user posts on the platform to train an artificial intelligence chatbot developed by the company, a move that may violate data protection laws, according to the Financial Times.
Last Friday, X users discovered that they had opted in to allowing their posts and interactions on the platform to be used by Grok, a chatbot developed by xAI, to train and improve the company’s AI systems.
This change occurred without obtaining explicit consent from users to share their data first, and the setting can only be changed on the PC version of the platform, so users are currently not allowed to opt out via the X app on smartphones.
“All X users have control over whether their public posts can be used to train Grok, our AI digital assistant,” the X security account said on Friday.
Ireland’s Data Protection Commissioner, the regulator responsible for holding internet service providers accountable to EU privacy law, said it has been in contact with X for months about its plans to use its users’ data to develop AI systems. The commission said it asked the company questions on Thursday about “transparency for users,” among other things.
Privacy experts have raised questions about whether X’s move could violate the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation, which requires companies that collect or use personal data to first obtain user consent and disclose why they are using it. If the Irish commission opens an investigation into the GDPR rules, X could face fines or penalties, the Financial Times reported.
Last month, Meta halted a plan to train its AI systems on data from Facebook and Instagram in Europe after a request from Ireland’s Data Protection Commission over GDPR compliance concerns.
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