The artificial intelligence revolution is here and it is learning from everything you have ever posted online. From casual social media updates to creative artworks and personal blog entries, user content is being quietly harvested to train AI models across the tech world.
This growing reliance on user data is sparking fresh concerns over privacy and consent. Recently, file sharing platform WeTransfer faced a wave of criticism after users discovered that its updated terms of service allowed the company to use uploaded files to improve machine learning systems. Although the company has since removed those terms, the incident highlighted a larger issue that is affecting millions of users across the internet.
Most companies are not asking for direct permission. Instead, they are relying on broad legal language and the assumption that publicly available data is fair game. Critics argue that this practice not only violates personal privacy but also undermines the rights of artists and content creators whose works are being used without credit or compensation.
So what can you do if you do not want your content feeding the AI engines of major corporations? The answer is complicated but there are some steps you can take.
Platforms That Allow Opting Out
Adobe
Users with personal Adobe accounts can visit the company’s privacy settings and disable the content analysis option. Business and school accounts are automatically excluded.
Google Gemini
Open the Gemini chatbot in your browser go to Activity settings and turn off Gemini Apps Activity to stop your interactions from being reviewed.
Grok on X
If you use the platform formerly known as Twitter you can visit your privacy settings look under the Grok section and uncheck the option that allows data sharing.
LinkedIn
In your LinkedIn settings navigate to Data Privacy and switch off the setting that allows your posts to be used for training AI content creation models.
ChatGPT and DALL E from OpenAI
Go to your settings then to Data Controls and uncheck the option that says improve the model for everyone. If you want to remove your images from DALL E training sets you will need to submit a form with proof of ownership.
There is also a tool called Have I Been Trained created by a startup called Spawning. It allows artists and creators to check if their images were included in AI training datasets.
