This Privacy Hoax Even Has Celebs Fooled. Here's How To Make Sure You Don't Fall For It.

If you’re on Instagram right now, you might be seeing a dire message being shared about artificial intelligence features from Meta Platforms, Instagram’s parent company. These include a chatbot that will answer your questions in a search bar, as well as services that can create digital stickers and edit photos.

And based on the popularity of the “Goodbye Meta AI” message on Instagram, people are not having it.

So far, this “Goodbye Meta AI” legal notice has been shared hundreds of thousands of times by not just typical social media users, but also musicians, actors and athletes like James McAvoy, Julianne Moore and Tom Brady, because Instagram’s “Add yours” sticker makes sharing the message as easy as a click. Perhaps even your friends or family members have put it on their accounts, too.

“Goodbye Meta AI. Please note an attorney has advised us to put this on, failure to do so may result in legal consequences,” the warning reads in part. “If you do not post at least once it will be assumed you are okay with them using your information and photos. I do not give Meta or anyone else permission to use any of my personal data, profile information or photos.”

But here’s the thing: Stating that Meta does not have your permission to use your data to train its AI has no legal standing.

Meta says it uses public Instagram and Facebook posts to train its generative AI models.

Your past posts may have already been used as part of this training. During an Australian Senate inquiry with Meta’s global privacy director, the company acknowledged that public posts from adults on Instagram or Facebook since 2007 had been used to train its AI.

And, no, a disclaimer posted to your Instagram story is not going to stop that from happening.

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