Google has revamped its privacy policy, revealing intentions to utilize any information available in the public domain to train its array of artificial intelligence (AI) services and products.
The technology giant has amended its privacy policy, now granting it the right to harness any publicly accessible data for the purpose of AI model training.
The privacy policy’s revision was introduced on July 1, and a comparison with past versions is available via a link on the update announcement page.
Significant alterations in the latest edition include the introduction of Google’s AI models, Bard and Cloud AI capabilities, to the roster of services potentially trained using “information that’s publicly available online” or derived from “other public sources.”
This policy revision implies that Google is making its intent explicit to users and the public: any information uploaded online, provided it’s public, might serve in the training process for its existing and future AI systems.
Google’s policy update arrives hot on the heels of a class-action lawsuit levied against OpenAI, the creator of the popular AI chatbot, ChatGPT, in California, for allegedly mining private user information from the web.
The lawsuit contends that OpenAI employed data from millions of comments across social media platforms, blogs, Wikipedia, and other personal user information to train ChatGPT without obtaining consent beforehand. The complaint concludes that this action infringed upon the copyrights and privacy rights of countless internet users.
Amidst this, Twitter’s recent decision to alter the number of tweets users can access based on their account verification status has led to speculation that this move is a response to AI data scraping incidents.
Developer documents from Twitter note that rate limits were established as a means of regulating the volume of requests made to Twitter’s application program interface.
Elon Musk, the current owner and former CEO of Twitter, recently tweeted about the platform being subjected to extensive data pillaging, which he claims is affecting the service quality for regular users.
Understanding the Implications
This policy change from Google underscores an increasing trend among tech giants to leverage public data for the advancement of AI. It could mark a pivotal moment in the ongoing debate about digital privacy and data ownership, influencing how other companies might approach this issue in the future.
Potential Impact on Users
For ordinary users, this shift might raise questions about what ‘publicly available’ means in the digital age. It’s a reminder for individuals to be aware of the digital footprint they’re leaving and to consider the potential use of their public information in contexts they might not have envisaged. This policy change underscores the importance of understanding and managing privacy settings across online platforms.