Without prior warning, Twitter shares your data with grok AI, even for EU Twitter users
Posted by jpluimers on 2024/07/27
Mentioned this on various social media already yesterday, as then suddenly – even for EU users, which is against their GDPR regulations – Twitter turned on data sharing with Grok AI of your Twitter data at x.com/settings/grok_settings (direct settings link) without given prior warning at all
I got this default setting despite living in The Netherlands and Twitter knowing that:
[Wayback/Archive] GTarcHSXMAAL8Fj.png (799×80)
(both above pictures from [Wayback/Archive] Jeroen Wiert Pluimers @wiert@mastodon.social on X: “@DannyMekic Gecontroleerd: stond hier ook default aan, terwijl in mijn account netjes “Country = Netherlands” staat. Hallo @toezicht_AP, gaarne hier actie op nemen.”)
Later yesterday, EFF also got hold of the default, but forgot about the EU regulations part:
[Wayback/Archive] EFF on X: “Without notice, X has opted all users into training its “Grok” AI Model. To turn off this setting and stop your “posts, interactions, inputs, and results” from being used for training and fine-tuning Grok, visit
x.com/settings/grok_settingsand uncheck the checkbox.”
My tweet was a response to Danny Mekić who was the first I saw people warning for this: [Wayback/Archive] Danny Mekić on X: “🚨 Twitter heeft net stiekem een standaardinstelling geactiveerd om al jouw berichten te ‘mogen’ gebruiken om hun AI-model te trainen. Ze hebben dit nooit aangekondigd of om toestemming gevraagd. Je kunt dit uitschakelen via het web (niet via de app) via een diep weggestopte”
which he followed up with a call for donations to some organisations stricing for internet privacy [Wayback/Archive] Danny Mekić on X: “Als je je digitale vrijheid belangrijk vindt, dan is dit misschien een goed moment om lid (donateur) te worden van: – noyb.eu/nl – bitsoffreedom.nl/doneren – privacyfirst.nl/doneren – edri.org/take-action/donate”
He then later published this English tweet about the Twitter Grok debacle: [Wayback/Archive] Danny Mekić on X: “🚨 Twitter has just secretly activated a default “data sharing” setting to “allow” all your posts to be used to train their AI model. They never announced this or asked for permission. You can disable this via the web (not the app) via a hidden page:”
--jeroen
[Wayback/Archive] Jeroen Wiert Pluimers: “As of today, Twitter shares EU…” – Mastodon
As of today, Twitter shares EU users’ data with grok AI without their consent by defaulting to opt-in against regulations
https://x.com/DannyMekic/status/1816782653808398610
Disable by removing the checkbox in this setting:
https://x.com/jpluimers/status/1816828303652569135
The Wiert Corner - irregular stream of stuff 
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