Meta's new AI features are only a privacy nightmare if you let them be

Meta held its yearly developer conference and surprise — a big focus was placed on AI. It will be introducing features that resemble what we see from other tech companies with improved voice recognition, photo scanning, and live translation as some of the highlights.

It sounds a lot like what we see from Google. It's also the same potential privacy nightmare and abuse of consumer data that applies to the same tools from Google. And it will be presented the very same way through the terms of service you are forced to agree with to use the products.

I've said this over and over and others have, too. You have to read the things you're agreeing to. Especially this time.

I'm not a fan of big tech or its fascination with intrusive AI. Amazon, Google, Apple, OpenAI, and the rest have their best interests in mind and try to provide services you want to use so they can profit from the user data you supply. That's why features are presented the way they are and try to entice you into using them.

That's fine if there's mutual benefit, and only you get to decide that. I always use myself as an example; I use Google's products and services.

I hate the amount of data Google collects and don't like everything the company does with it. In return, I get to use products I find useful. I'd much rather pay real money to use these products and skip the excessive data collection, but that's not an option. I opt out of anything that doesn't interest me and begrudgingly allow the rest because I benefit.

Plenty of folks don't feel this way and try not to use Google's products, and I don't use Amazon's (for example) because the benefits aren't there for me. Nobody is right or wrong here because we each get to decide for ourselves.

You have to make an informed decision, though. It's foolish to think a company like Meta has developed and released these features for free out of kindness or philopatry. Meta may not want to harm society, but it cares most about how the company itself will benefit.

No company will risk stealing user data and abusing it without permission. Even when done inadvertently there are often brutal punishments doled out by the courts for breach of trust issues. And there should be. Everything Meta collects and everything it does with it once collected is written in the terms and conditions for you to read. If you agree, you have given your blessing.

The one thing here that's a little different is the language used in those terms. To their credit, Google and Apple use language that's easy to understand when it comes to company policy, and Microsoft is getting there. We should remember that when we decide what tech ecosystem to buy into. I know I do because this means a lot and promotes a level of trust.

Meta is not on this list. Meta has a bad habit of writing difficult-to-understand policy documents and hiding them behind links to other documents. Long-time users of Meta products like Facebook will also remember how any updates reset all your privacy features. To return them to work the way you wanted meant you needed to go through them page by page. The company was hoping you wouldn't bother.

I'm sure that Meta understands what this looks like to consumers. I'm equally sure the company doesn't care because it knows almost everyone will click or tap the button that says "I agree" and allow them to do whatever they like.

I'm saying you shouldn't. The articles you read about how bad Meta's AI features are from a privacy perspective often leave this important detail out. They're only bad if you want them to be, just like Google's, Apple's, or Amazon's.