Data protection officers file complaints against X for data collection for AI chatbot
The Vienna-based data protection organization NOYB (None of your business - None of your business) has filed complaints in nine European countries against the online service X of tech billionaire Elon Musk, alleging that it is using personal data without user consent to train its artificial intelligence (AI) program. X did not even inform its users in advance, NOYB stated on Monday.
X reportedly began feeding the data of 60 million European users into its AI chatbot Grok in May, the organization said. The Irish data protection authority, responsible for the EU, has initiated legal action; it had announced on Thursday that X would temporarily suspend data processing. The authority also stated that it would continue to examine whether the data processing complies with the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
NOYB stated on Monday that the "notoriously business-friendly" Irish data protection authority had apparently criticized X's lack of cooperation rather than questioning the legitimacy of the data processing itself. It is also unclear what has happened to the data that has already been fed in.
Therefore, NOYB has filed complaints with the data protection authorities of nine countries. NOYB wants to ensure that X fully complies with EU law and at least asks users for their consent, said chairman Max Schrems.
The GDPR provides a simple solution: "Companies that interact directly with users simply need to ask them a yes/no question before using their data. They do this regularly for many other things, so it would definitely be possible for AI training." NOYB filed the complaints with the data protection authorities in Belgium, France, Greece, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Austria, Poland, and Spain.
X neither defended its actions regarding user consent nor expressed remorse, stating "not at all" in response to NOYB's concerns. The data protection authorities in these nine countries are yet to provide a clear response on how they plan to handle NOYB's complaints.
