Is Privacy The Sacrificial Lamb For AI Revolution?

At WWDC 2024 there were a lot of exciting developments — or like Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak described them as impressive demonstrations. However, Tim Cook's unveiling of Apple Intelligence highlighted an important but otherwise ignored concern about the AI revolution: User privacy. 

While Apple has built a reputation for prioritizing user privacy and data protection, the tech giant’s partnership with Microsoft-backed OpenAI raised some concerns.

Naturally, Apple had to take cognizance of these concerns and give some clarifications, but the question remains: Is the AI revolution slowly killing our privacy?

One Month, Two Companies Face Backlash

Adobe: Before Apple announced the OpenAI partnership at WWDC, Adobe’s update to its terms and conditions received the wrath of professional users. The revised terms and conditions for apps like Photoshop stated that Adobe may review user content using automated and manual methods.

Users were asked to mandatorily allow Adobe a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free, sublicensable license to use, reproduce, publicly display, distribute, modify, create derivative works, and translate their content.

This didn’t sit well with some professionals and they urged others also to cancel their Adobe subscriptions. 

What Adobe Said: When we asked the company about these concerns, Adobe directed us toward a clarification posted on June 10 blaming “the language” for the confusion. 

Adobe said, “Your content is yours and will never be used to train any generative AI tool. We will make it clear in the license grant section that any license granted to Adobe to operate its services will not supersede your ownership rights.”

Adobe will release its updated Terms of Use next week and has made it clear that users can choose whether they want to participate in Adobe’s product improvement program or not.

Apple: Similarly, earlier this week, after Apple announced the OpenAI partnership, tech behemoth Elon Musk led the charge to raise privacy-related concerns. The Tesla CEO went as far as threatening Apple. 

Musk warned Cupertino that if the tech giant decided to integrate OpenAI’s technology at the operating system level, he would ban Apple products from his companies including SpaceX.

What Apple Did: The iPhone maker had to eventually bow down to the concerns and address the issue publicly. Apple said that users will have to option to opt out of OpenAI integration.

It’s Not Just These Two

As AI continues to make waves, privacy concerns continue to emerge. Last year in March, Italy became the first Western nation to ban OpenAI citing privacy concerns. 

While the ban was eventually reversed in the country, Italy’s watchdog said in January that OpenAI’s data collection methods infringe on the country’s privacy laws.

After Italy banned OpenAI in March, Samsung, Apple, and Google reportedly banned AI chatbots like ChatGPT, Google Bard (now called Gemini), and Bing AI.

This came almost a month after it was reported that Samsung’s confidential corporate information was leaked after a staff member used ChatGPT to improve their work.

In 2022, Clearview AI, a facial recognition company also faced backlash for scrapping billions of images from the internet and leveraging them for facial recognition.

Privacy Demands Not Enough Anymore: Legal Action Required

Europe-based non-profit organization, Noyb, has filed complaints in 11 European countries against Meta Platforms, urging data protection authorities to halt Meta's new privacy policy.

The policy intends to use personal data, including private posts and images, for AI purposes without user consent, citing a "legitimate interest." This action, set to take effect in June, violates GDPR, according to Noyb, as it disregards the need for user consent and the right to data protection.

Meta's policy claims a legitimate interest overrides user rights, a stance previously rejected by the European Court of Justice.

Noyb's founder, Max Schrems, highlights that the policy's vague terms and potential data-sharing with undefined third parties constitute a blatant GDPR breach. The organization is calling for an urgent procedure to stop Meta's plans before they become effective, emphasizing the significant implications for users' data privacy. 

This Isn’t The End Of It

Given that AI is an emerging technology and that it is rapidly evolving, this is likely not the last we’re going to hear about privacy concerns.

The backlash from users, privacy and security advocates, and non-profit organizations will likely continue to make its presence felt, forcing some, if not all companies, to make changes to their models to respect users’ privacy.

However, the degree to which companies violate user privacy is something that needs to be kept a close watch on. While Apple underlined the steps it is taking to maintain its user-first stance, it remains to be seen if other companies adopt a similar approach.

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