Meta's Controversial Camera Roll Access: AI Training or Privacy Invasion?

Is Meta secretly scanning your phone's camera roll? Check this setting to find out

Find the option labeled "Get creative ideas made for you by allowing camera roll cloud processing." If the switch is on (blue), tap it once to turn it off (gray). This will stop Facebook from continuously uploading media from your camera roll -- and using details like time, location, themes, and the presence of people or objects -- to generate personalized creative ideas such as recaps and AI restylings. The steps above, which I've verified using the Faebook app for iPhone, may vary on Android devices. Samsung users, for instance, must do the following: Open Facebook > Go to Profile/Menu > Tap the gear icon in the upper right > Scroll down to "Camera roll sharing suggestions" and select it > You'll see the two camera roll sharing toggles. Definitely go to Facebook's support hub if you need more help. You basically got to find the Settings and privacy menu in the Facebook mobile app, and from there, you can find "Camera roll sharing suggestions" and disable the options. Meta is uploading and analyzing your camera roll photos and videos, even ones you haven't posted, in its cloud in order to generate AI-powered suggestions like collages, monthly recaps, themed albums, or AI-restyled versions of your images. Meta has confirmed the feature is a test, saying, "We're exploring ways to make content sharing easier for people on Facebook by testing suggestions of ready-to-share and curated content from a person's camera roll." The test is currently available in the US and Canada, but it's not available in Illinois or Texas due to those states' privacy laws. Meta is showing a pop-up asking users if they want to enable cloud processing, but some users claim they haven't seen it. Instead, they found the toggles in their settings already switched on by default, raising questions about whether clear consent was given. I've asked several people to check whether camera roll sharing suggestions were enabled in their Facebook app. Besides myself and ZDNET's editorial director, my partner, in-laws, and many friends all found the options turned on without their knowledge. Some people recall seeing a pop-up from Facebook, while others do not. But everyone said they did not realize they were allowing access to their camera roll data. They also said they would not have allowed it if they had known. ZDNET's sister site, CNET, reports that Meta pulls from your newer pictures (roughly the last 30 days) and if you disable the feature, your uploaded photos will be deleted after 30 days. The only way to confirm is by downloading your Facebook account data. It expands Meta's reach beyond the content you've chosen to upload and share online -- into your private, unposted photos and videos. For many, that's a major red flag and a line they're not comfortable crossing, understandably so. Also: What Zuckerberg's 'personal superintelligence' sales pitch leaves out Even if Meta is asking for consent to access your camera roll in order to analyze your phone's photos and provide AI-powered suggestions, the company could have done a better job of being clear and explicit about what it's trying to do. How many users, like me, simply dismissed the consent pop-up without fully realizing what they'd just agreed to?

Stop Letting Facebook Harvest Your Photos

We may earn a commission when you click links to retailers and purchase goods. More info. It was at least a few months ago when word got out that Facebook wanted to access everyone's photo gallery to help train its AI models. Thanks to a recent writeup from The Standard, this practice is in the headlines again, so while we're on the subject, we'd like to take this time to tell everyone to absolutely opt out of this nonsense. There are two settings inside of Facebook that need to be disabled if you don't want the company digging through your photos "on an ongoing basis." The settings are "Get camera roll suggestions when you're browsing Facebook" and "Get creative ideas made for you by allowing camera roll cloud processing." The second one is the most egregious. When enabled, it allows Meta to harvest from your camera roll on an "ongoing basis." The setting says, "We'll choose media based on info like time, location, themes, and presence of people or objects," meaning the company uploads photos from your phone and analyzes them without any real notification to the user. The sell is that you can get neat photo suggestions automatically, but the cost of giving over your camera roll on an ongoing basis to Zuckerberg is way too high for that. I don't know about any of you, but I don't want Facebook using my private photos to train its AI. Thanks, but no thanks. And if you're someone who doesn't have Facebook because you're so hip, we salute you. Some of us don't have much of a choice when it comes to staying connected to friends and family. It sucks, but we can at least try to limit how much data these companies steal from us.