The Meta AI app reveals your usage to Instagram friends through notifications, raising privacy concerns.
San Francisco: Meta’s new Muse Spark AI model launched this week, and with the Meta AI app already on your phone, a problem appears.
People using the Meta AI app might not know their friends will get Instagram notifications when they use it. Meta sends alerts about which friends are on the app to get more people to join.
The Meta AI app started last year. When I wrote about it back then, I used it for work. After some months, friends started texting me because Instagram told them I was using the Meta AI app.
Only 6.5 million people had the app in its first month and a half, market data showed. That’s small for Meta since about 42% of everyone in the world uses Meta’s apps daily. My use showed up big on my friends’ notification feeds like a new follower.
Now downloads are up because of a better chatbot, reaching No. 5 in the U.S. App Store. But I warn people about problems when the app tells others you use it.
Your Instagram friends will see you use the app through notifications as big as if you followed someone new. Meta’s apps connect so much that data flows between them in ways we might not expect. If I told Meta AI about my period, my Instagram might show me ads for period panties.
The Meta AI app never asked if it could tell people I use it. It just did because I agreed somewhere in terms of service that I did not read. We all know too much about each other through these apps, but Meta knows even more.
Some users shared way too much. Last summer, Meta had a Discover feed where people shared their AI chat conversations without realizing it. Boomers sometimes made mistakes with the tech and shared private talks.
We saw people ask Meta about farts that smell bad and others who shared home addresses and medical conditions. Meta has since removed this Discover feed due to the problems it caused.