Google adjusts its privacy policy to allow data scraping for AI training

Google has recently modified its privacy policy to better facilitate the collection of publicly available user information for the purpose of training artificial intelligence models.

In accordance with Google’s revised privacy policy, publicly available information from the internet and other sources will be utilised for the training of artificial intelligence models, encompassing services such as Google Translate as well as ‘Bard‘, a cloud-based AI application project.

In contrast to the original description that emphasized the use of public data for training natural language models or application services, Google’s current revision evidently seeks to assert that the acquisition of users’ publicly posted information can ‘legitimately’ be used for AI project training.

However, despite Google’s preemptive declaration through the adjustment of its privacy policy that collected public information will be used for AI training, the ultimate determination of whether this constitutes a violation of privacy rights may depend on regional laws concerning the appropriateness of privacy usage. For instance, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) enforced in the European Union region imposes more stringent requirements for user privacy protection. Consequently, even if Google deems the acquisition of users’ public information to be reasonable, it may still be deemed as endangering user privacy.