Meta Now Wants Access to Your Camera Roll for AI

Meta Now Wants Access to Your Camera Roll for AI

Meta has introduced a new opt-in AI feature for Facebook users in the US and Canada that promises to help people rediscover their best photos and videos. According to Meta, the tool uses artificial intelligence to scan your phone’s camera roll and pull out “hidden gems” buried between random screenshots, blurry images, or receipts. But while this sounds helpful, the feature raises serious privacy and data usage questions.

How the AI Camera Roll Feature Works

This new AI feature is built to improve the content users share on Facebook. Once users turn it on:

• Meta uploads photos and videos from your camera roll to Meta’s cloud.
  
• The AI scans your private photos.
  
• It suggests things like photo edits, highlights, and creative collages.
  
• You can choose to save or share these AI-generated suggestions.
  

However, the feature only works with unpublished photos—that means it scans media you haven’t uploaded to Facebook yet.

AI Training Concerns: Will Meta Use Your Private Photos?

When Meta first tested this feature earlier in June, it refused to confirm whether users’ private photos might later be used to train Meta’s AI models. Now, the company has clarified its stance—but the explanation still comes with a catch.

Meta now says:

“We don’t use media from your camera roll to improve AI at Meta, unless you choose to edit this media with our AI tools, or share.”

In other words:

• If you only opt in, Meta will upload and scan your photos, but won’t train AI with them.
  
• If you edit photos using Meta AI or publish AI suggestions, then Meta may use your images to improve its AI models.
  

A Meta spokesperson confirmed this policy, stating that only processed or shared photos may be used for AI training.

What About Privacy?

Meta says your camera roll images:

• Will be uploaded “on an ongoing basis” to Meta’s cloud
  
• May be stored for longer than 30 days
  
• Won’t be used for ad targeting
  

However, Meta has already acknowledged using public photos and posts from Facebook and Instagram since 2007 to train its AI models. That is why privacy advocates are concerned. Allowing an app to continuously upload your private photo library—even if “for suggestions”—feels like a major privacy risk.

Should You Use It?

Meta says this feature is meant for people who enjoy taking photos but don’t always know how to edit or arrange them creatively before posting. It will roll out gradually in the coming months.

But before enabling it, consider:
Do you trust Meta to handle your private camera roll responsibly?
Are you okay with Meta storing your personal photos in the cloud?
Would you avoid using AI-powered edits to stop your photos from training Meta AI?

If your answer to any of these is no, it may be safer to leave the feature turned off.

TechCity