A cybersecurity expert has raised a serious concern about Facebook's use of users' photos.
Caitlin Sarian has shared her insights in a recent Instagram post on how users may unknowingly allow Facebook to access and use their images.
In a post Sarian said, "Facebook is now accessing the photos on your phone that you haven’t even uploaded yet, so it can generate story ideas."
She added, "That means they’re scanning our camera roll, faces, location, time stamps, and more - and you might not even realise that you said yes."
Facebook has introduced a new feature where it asks users for permission to access the photos stored on their phones when they try to create a Story or a post.
A pop-up message asks if they want to turn on "cloud processing," which allows Facebook to use AI to suggest creative ideas based on the photos in their phone's gallery.
The platform claims this is to offer automatic suggestions using AI to edit those photos, as per MailUK.
However, if users allow this access, they are also agreeing to certain terms and conditions that allow Meta to access and possibly use their photos for other purposes as well.
The terms of service reads, "Once shared, you agree that Meta will analyze those images, including facial features, using AI."
It added, "This processing allows us to offer innovative new features, including the ability to summarize image contents, modify images, and generate new content based on the image."
How to keep your photos protected?
There are some tips and settings you can use to protect yourself from all of this like the feature is optional for now and it will only work if you give your permission, so if you haven't accepted the pop-up, then Meta won't automatically get access to your photos.
Also, you can do it through the app's setting. First go to the menu, open "Setting and Privacy," then go into "Settings," and search for "camera roll sharing."
There, you'll see two settings, one for showing photo suggestions and another for using cloud processing to give ideas.
To keep your photos private, you should turn both of these settings.
