X Accused of Using EU User Data to Train Grok Without Consent
The Irish Data Protection Commissioner (DPC) is taking Elon Musk’s X to court, according to Irish broadcaster RTE. The commission has taken Twitter International to the High Court over concerns about the use of public posts by Europeans on X to train the company’s artificial intelligence tools. The data protection regulator is particularly concerned that European users’ data will be used to train the next version of Grok, which Musk had previously said would be released this month.
In July, X rolled out a change that automatically enabled settings for all users, allowing websites to further use public posts on the platform to train its AI chatbots. The commissioner told TechCrunch that it was surprised by X’s decision, having been in touch with the company about it for months. Since May, X has had a help page that provides users with instructions on how to opt out of having their data used for AI training, but it has not explicitly informed users that they have enabled access to a person’s data by default.
The DPC acknowledged that X did provide people with an opt-out mechanism, but that mechanism has reportedly been insufficient for the agency. It argues that there are still many X users in Europe whose data is being processed without the protection of such mitigation measures. X’s use of people’s data to train Grok violates its obligations under the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the Commission said. Failure to provide users with an opt-out mechanism in a timely manner also violates the GDPR.
As TechCrunch noted, there must be at least one legal basis for European users’ data to be lawfully processed under the GDPR if a company is lawfully processing users’ data. For example, the company must have obtained the user’s explicit consent, or the user must have the user’s express consent to comply with a contractual obligation. There are other lawful purposes for which the individual’s data could be used. But the DPC’s complaint says the company does not believe that X has any legal basis for its actions.
Twitter International, X’s Irish division, has also refused to stop processing user data and delay the launch of the next version of Grok, as requested by the Commission. That’s why the DPC decided to take action in its complaint, asking the court to block or completely prohibit the company from training any AI systems with X users’ data. If the court finds that X is in breach of the GDPR, the company could face fines of up to 4 percent of its annual global revenue.
However, after the DPC filed its complaint with the court, X agreed to stop using some of its European users’ data for training purposes, at least for the time being. Specifically, X agreed not to use public posts created by European users collected between May 7 and August 1. “This development will help us continue to protect the rights and freedoms of X users across the EU and [European Economic Area],” said Data Protection Commissioner Des Hogan. However, the agency will not drop the lawsuit, and the DPC will continue to investigate whether X’s actions violate the GDPR.
Update August 9, 2024 9:39 a.m. ET: This post has been updated to reflect new information that X has agreed to stop using some of its European users’ data for Grok training purposes.
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