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.
How to Disable
- Open the menu inside the Facebook app
- Click on Settings and privacy
- Click Settings
- Scroll until you see “Camera roll sharing suggestions”
- Disable both features
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.
Sounds like this is only an issue if you use the facebook app. Not a problem yet if you use facebook on the web, have instagram app or messenger apps installed.
If I actually use Facebook.
Soon, it will be mandatory to use the app. Just like Android is going to curate all the apps you can use.
I've always just used Facebook in Chrome on my phone. Hopefully this won't affect the web. Also anyone know if Instagram or Threads are doing this?
FWIW, this option doesn't seem to be there for my Facebook "Lite" app, which I highly recommend for those who still use FB but don't want the full "experience". But if in doubt, just go to your App settings for Facebook/Lite, and disable the permission for Photos and Videos. Either turn it off completely, or change to "Limited Access" so it only access the photos that you explicitly share with the app. This should prevent any FB shenanigans from accessing your photos, ever.
Ok but a (not so) odd question…. is this same setting/idea buried somewhere in Facebook's other apps that are more mobile-centric? Instagram, Whatsapp, etc? They make their settings so convoluted, it is hard to tell.
I just use the Facebook website on my phone and don’t have the app installed.
people still install facebook?
wow you're so cool. You don't use Facebook!
You can use Facebook without installing their app. In fact using a normal browser to view facebook is MUCH better than installing their data and battery sucking app on your phone.
i didn’t say i don’t use it, but i sure don’t install the app. it’s a massive resource hog and the web interface works great…
Any way to disable this on Facebook Lite? Not finding the "Camera roll sharing suggestions” setting but I'm sure it's there.
You can maybe try this other method inside of Facebook Lite?
"At the top of your Feed, tap "+" (Create Story).
In the top right, tap the gear .
Tap Camera roll settings.
Toggle Get camera roll suggestions when you're browsing Facebook on or off."
Maybe that'll help?
One option is to just go to your App settings for Facebook/Lite, and disable the permission for Photos and Videos. Either turn it off completely, or change to "Limited Access" so it only access the photos that you explicitly share with the app.
Interesting, that second option is not there for me. I wonder if they're pulling back on that one (or I don't have it yet).
It's there on mine, but wasn't turned on by default.
I think it's from a recent update.
Or …
just opt out of Facebook.
Again, some of us use it as a tool to keep in touch with people. Unfortunate, but necessary evil for some.
correct. the automotive community is huge on facebook. The different groups have really taken over what forums used to be.
Eh, I'd argue Reddit took over what forums used to be. I'm hoping the Digg reboot will compete with that.
Im in multiple groups for Laserdiscs, VHS Tapes, Retro Gaming etc.
A couple of group chats are a wonderful thing to build your own social network platform to keep in touch with people