German regulator orders Meta to halt AI training on EU user data
A German data protection regulator ordered Meta to stop training its new AI chatbot on European user data ahead of the planned May 2025 launch. The action follows privacy concerns from multiple European regulators about Meta's use of personal information from Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp to customise the AI system.
What happened
Meta announced a new AI chatbot called Meta AI that uses personal data from users' Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp accounts to personalise responses. The company planned to begin training the system on 27 May 2025 as part of a new privacy policy, drawing on information users had already shared on Meta products including their profiles and content they engaged with.
The Verbraucherzentrale North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW), a regional German data protection authority, issued a cease and desist letter ordering Meta to halt all AI training using the data of European users. NRW data protection expert Christine Steffen stated that action was urgent because data incorporated into the AI is difficult to retrieve.
Reported impact
Privacy regulators from Belgium, France, and the Netherlands had already warned users about security and privacy issues and advised them to restrict data access before training began. The NRW argues that Meta falsely claims to care about European data use and that users should have a say in how their data is used.
Index analysis
The incident reflects concerns about the use of personal data for training large language models without explicit user consent. The regulatory action highlights tension between tech companies' commercial interests in leveraging user data and European data protection standards.
Governance controls
The NRW ordered Meta to cease AI training activities and threatened legal action if the company did not cooperate with the directive. Privacy regulators in multiple European countries have taken coordinated action to restrict Meta's data practices.
Classification
Sources and evidence
This record was researched and written by the Index, based on the following original reporting.