SAN ANTONIO – If you’ve been scrolling on Instagram, you’ve probably seen a post with text claiming the user must repost a statement or Meta can steal their personal data.
“Goodbye Meta A.I.” is the most recent viral “copy pasta” (a term used to describe a block of text that is copied and pasted over and over again) popping up on social media.
Recommended Videos
So, we looked into it. Does reposting this text actually do anything to protect your private info or data? No, reposting the statement will do nothing to protect you or the information you share online.
“While we don’t currently have an opt-out feature, we’ve built in-platform tools that allow people to delete their personal information from chats with Meta AI across our apps,” says Emil Vazquez, a spokesperson for Meta in an interview with Wired magazine.
Instagram has begun to flag the posts, so some users may now see the post labeled as “false information” if they try to view it.
“Meta AI” has peaked in searches on Wednesday on Google Trends over the past seven days.
According to the New York Times, “there aren’t any privacy laws in the United States that are specific to stopping the tech giant from using public posts for these purposes.”
The newspaper added that users should pay close attention to the platform’s terms of service, especially if and when they change.
If you are looking for a bit more privacy online, click here for an explainer on how to make your Instagram account private.
