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The Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) is suing Elon Musk’s X. According to an Irish broadcaster, rateThe European Commission has filed a high court lawsuit against Twitter International over concerns that public posts by Europeans on X are being used to train the company’s artificial intelligence tools. The data protection watchdog is particularly concerned that European users’ data is being used to train the next version of Grok, which Musk previously said he would release later this month.
In July, X introduced a change that automatically enabled a setting for all users, allowing it to further train its AI chatbot using public posts on the platform. Said TechCrunch The company said it was surprised by X’s decision because it had been in contact with the company about the matter for months. X had had a help page instructing users not to use their data for AI training since at least May, but had not made it clear that it had turned on access to people’s data by default.
The DPC acknowledges that X did offer users an opt-out mechanism. But that’s reportedly not enough for the agency. It alleges that a significant number of X’s users based in Europe still have their data processed without the protection of these mitigations. According to the commission, X’s use of people’s data to train Grok breaches its obligations under the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The failure to provide users with a timely opt-out mechanism also breaches GDPR, the commission added.
As TechCrunch The DPC points out that for a European user’s data to be lawfully processed under the GDPR, there must be at least one lawful basis. For example, if a company wants to process a user’s data lawfully, it must do so with the user’s explicit consent or because the user needs to fulfil a contractual obligation. While there are other lawful purposes for which an individual’s data may be used, the DPC’s complaint indicates that it believes there is no lawful basis for X’s actions.
Twitter International, X’s Irish subsidiary, also reportedly refused to follow the Commission’s request to stop processing user data and postpone the release of the next version of Grok. The DPC therefore decided to press ahead with its complaint, which would allow it to ask the court to stop or completely ban the company from using X users’ data to train its AI systems. If the court finds that X has indeed violated GDPR rules, the company could be fined up to 4% of its global annual turnover.
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