The deadline is approaching: May 27, 2025, the grace period ends – then Meta will officially begin systematically feeding the public data of billions of Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and Threads users to their Artificial Intelligence. The new privacy policies have long been sent out, most have probably read them.
And I wonder: How many people have actually taken action?
Hide and Seek with Opt-Out
Objecting to use your data is possible and Meta doesn’t make it easy for customers, that’s at least my experience. The opt-out procedure is buried deep in the settings, a complicated customer experience through various menus and subpages.
It’s the classic dark pattern strategy: legally clean, practically deterrent.
But even if you fight through this jungle and successfully object – what does that really mean? Meta assures they will only use “public data.” But who still believes in such assurances?
Trust in US Tech Giants
My trust in the American tech giants, like Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, Microsoft, Google, Alphabet, has been at a historic low since the political shift under the Trump administration. The times when we naively believed in shared values and a stable transatlantic alliance are partially gone.
Yes, we have European laws.
Yes, we have GDPR.
Yes, we have created legal frameworks for ourselves.
And now what good are European rights when all the personal and enterprise data is on American servers?
What do our data protection regulations mean when they must be implemented by companies subject to a completely different legal system and different political priorities?
The Illusion of European Data Sovereignty
European digital sovereignty reveals itself as what it has always been: a facade. For years, we have been lulled into the illusion that our trust in the transatlantic partnership would protect us. Millions of Europeans have used Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Co. – in good faith in shared democratic values.
The price of this naivety is now becoming visible: Any knowledge from Europe is vulnerable and available in the USA. Profiles of people, their acquaintances, relatives, friends, colleagues – everything becomes transparent when you systematically combine these data masses. And that’s exactly what Meta is now doing officially.
Data as the New Gold
In the AI age, data is the new gold. Meta no longer makes any secret of wanting to exploit this gold mine. The justification is businesswise understandable: Those who want to develop the best AI models need the most and most diverse data. And nobody has more of it than the social media giants.
But at what price? Every post, every photo, every interaction becomes training material for algorithms whose goals and applications we cannot control. What is still sold today as harmless data collection for better advertising can be used tomorrow for surveillance, manipulation, or discrimination.
The Scary Potential: What AI Could Know About Us
Imagine asking Meta’s AI system these questions tomorrow:
- Summarize who I am! What does my network look like?
- Who do I talk to most and least in this network, and how is my network structured?
- Can you give me a cross-platform picture of my presence on Facebook, Instagram, Threads, and Messenger?
- Who am I in contact with the most?
- What does my social profile look like in this network?
The AI wouldn’t just answer – it would provide frighteningly detailed insights. But the possibilities go much darker:
- Which of my friends are most likely to be politically radicalized based on their sharing patterns?
- Who in my network is going through relationship problems, financial difficulties, or mental health issues?
- Which of my contacts would be most susceptible to misinformation campaigns?
- Map the influence networks in my friend group, who are the opinion leaders?
- Predict which of my connections might be useful for corporate intelligence or political manipulation.
- Identify people in my network who could be compromised or blackmailed based on their digital behavior.
- Create psychological profiles: Who are the risk-takers, the conformists, the potential whistleblowers?
- Which of my friends have undisclosed financial assets, hidden relationships, or secret political affiliations?
These aren’t science fiction scenarios, they’re logical extensions of what becomes possible when you combine massive datasets with advanced AI. Every like, every comment timing, every photo location, every message frequency pattern becomes a data point in a comprehensive behavioral analysis.
The Practical Reality: Why Your Opt-Out Might Not Matter
Even if you successfully navigate Meta’s maze and opt out, consider these uncomfortable truths:
The data is already there. Once your information trains their AI models, it becomes part of the algorithm’s “knowledge” forever. Deleting your account later won’t “untrain” the AI that has already learned from your behavioral patterns.
Your network is still there. Every friend, family member, or colleague who hasn’t opted out continues to generate data about you through their interactions. When they message you, tag you, or mention you, they’re feeding information about your relationships and activities into the system – regardless of your personal opt-out status.
Meta is still growing. While other companies scramble for training data, Meta sits on the world’s largest collection of human behavioral data. This creates a monopolistic advantage that could foster their dominance in the AI space for decades to come.
What’s Next?
The question is no longer whether we have lost our digital sovereignty – that’s gone. The question is how we deal with it? Do we object to the new terms? Do we leave the platforms? Do we have to accept a reality where our digital footprints become irrevocably part of a US data collection system?
Perhaps it’s time for a fundamental reorientation – a potential wake up call: Do we need European alternatives to the American and Asian platforms?
Do we have to change our habits, even if it’s inconvenient? Or have we already passed the point where individual resistance can still make a difference?
One thing is certain: The time of digital naivety for Europe is over.
Personal Blog of Patrick Sauerwein 