Facebook is automatically suggesting an AI-edited version of the photo, asking users to access their phone’s camera roll, including photos that have not yet been uploaded to Facebook.
This feature is proposed when Facebook users are creating new stories in their social networking apps. Here, the screen pops up and asks the user whether to select “Cloud Processing” to allow creative suggestions.
As the pop-up message explains, clicking Allow will let Facebook generate new ideas from your camera roll, such as Collage, Recaps, AI Restylings, or Photo themes. To work, Facebook says it will upload media from its camera roll to the cloud (meaning servers) on a continuous basis, based on information such as time, location, theme, etc.
The message also notes that you can see the proposals and that the media is not used for ad targeting.
However, by tapping “Allow” you agree to the Meta AI terminology. This allows AI to analyze media and facial features. The company also creates creative ideas using the dates and presence of people and objects in their photos.
Creative tools are another example of the slippery slopes that come with sharing personal media with AI providers. Like other tech giants, Meta has epic AI ambitions. It could bring an advantage to the company with AI racing as you can tap on personal photos that have not yet been shared on Facebook’s social networks.
Unfortunately for end users, it is not always clear what they agree with when features like this are displayed, as tech companies are in a hurry to move on.
According to Meta’s AI terminology, “When shared, Meta agrees to use AI to analyze these images, including facial features. This process allows us to provide innovative new features, such as the ability to summarise the content of the image, modify the image, and generate new content based on the image,” the text says.
The same AI term also gives Meta’s AI the right to “retain and use” the personal information they share to personalize the output of the AI. The company noted that it can see interactions with AI, including conversations, and reviews of them may be done by humans. “It does not define what the meta considers personal information, and includes “information that you send as prompts, feedback or other content.”
You should wonder if the photos you share for “cloud processing” will also count here.
Meta has not responded to requests for comments or explanations.
So far, there hasn’t been much backlash on this feature. Several Facebook users came across AI-generated photo suggestions when they created a new story and raised questions about it. For example, one user on Reddit discovered that Facebook had lifted up old photos (in this case, one that had previously been shared by social networks) and automatically turned them into anime using Meta AI.
When another user in Anti-AI’s Facebook group requested that it help shut down this feature, the search caused a section in the app’s settings called Camera Roll Sharing Suggestions.
Additionally, this feature is located under Facebook Settings and is listed in the Settings section.
The Camera Roll Sharing Suggestions page has two toggles. First, you can suggest a photo where Facebook rolls a photo from the camera when viewing the app. The second (must opt in based on the popup that requested permission for the story) can enable or disable “cloud processing.” This allows Meta to create AI images using camera roll photos.
This additional access, which uses AI in camera roll photos, does not appear to be new.
A confused Facebook user found a post from earlier this year sharing a screenshot of a pop-up message displayed in the Stories section. Meta also publishes full help documentation on features for both iOS and Android users.
As of June 23, 2024, META’s AI conditions were enforceable. You cannot compare current AI terms with older versions. Because Meta doesn’t keep records and previously published terms are not properly stored by Internet Archive’s Wayback machine.
However, this feature is immersed in the camera roll, and is expanded beyond what Meta previously announced in terms of training AI with public data, such as posts and comments on Facebook and Instagram. (EU users were required to opt out until May 27, 2025.)
