{"slug": "if-you-dont-want-to-let-everyone-use-your-instagram-public-photos-for-ai-heres", "title": "If you don’t want to let everyone use your Instagram public photos for AI—here’s how to opt out of Meta Muse Image", "summary": "Meta launched Muse Image, an AI image generation model that can use public Instagram photos without permission, sparking privacy concerns. Users aged 18 and over with public accounts are automatically opted in but can opt out via settings.", "body_md": "This week, Meta[ launched Muse Image](https://about.fb.com/news/2026/07/introducing-muse-image-meta-ai/), Meta Superintelligence Lab’s first image generation model. And with the new [AI](https://www.fastcompany.com/section/artificial-intelligence) tool, Meta is once again [testing the limits of privacy rights](https://www.fastcompany.com/91327812/metas-ai-social-feed-is-a-privacy-disaster-waiting-to-happen).\n\nAs Meta explains it, Muse Image “uses advanced reasoning to understand complex prompts, seamlessly blending multiple photos into high-quality creations you can download and share anywhere—including directly to your chat, story, or feed.” Examples provided by Meta include creating animated versions of images, putting famous landmarks in the background, and changing everything from a person’s accessories to food.\n\nOh, yeah—and it can use photos from other accounts without permission.\n\nMeta touts features like generating images directly in WhatsApp chats, and 30 AI-powered effects available in Instagram stories, with more coming to Messenger and Facebook soon. But, it further highlights that Instagram users can easily take other people’s content for their [AI creations](https://www.fastcompany.com/91424965/meta-is-asking-facebook-users-to-give-its-ai-access-to-their-entire-camera-roll).\n\n“You can also @-mention Instagram accounts in the Meta AI app to bring specific Instagram profiles right into your images,” Meta’s post reads. “Whether you want to design a custom event invitation, mock up a collaborative creative concept, or generate a personalized graphic, tagging a username lets Meta AI use public photos to build a visual that’s ready to post.”\n\nUnsurprisingly, Meta is positioning this as a positive thing, stating that Muse Image is “rooted in your world.” It gives a theoretically wholesome example of using a friend’s profile to create an AI-generated birthday card.\n\nYet it doesn’t take much imagination to guess the ways such easy access could be abused. Social media users were, not so shockingly, unhappy about this development. [One Reddit user wrote](https://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/1uqjxt4/meta_just_launched_a_new_ai_generator_muse_image/), “The tool itself is not the surprising part. The surprising part is still pretending ‘you can turn it off in settings’ is meaningful consent for normal users.” (*Fast Company* has reached out to Meta for comment on the criticism.)\n\nYou can, as that Reddit user mentioned, turn off AI access to your public photos. Here’s how.\n\nRight now, everyone aged 18 or over with a public account is opted in for use.\n\nThankfully, it’s possible to opt out of access, even without going private.\n\nTake these steps to opt out of Meta’s Muse Image:\n\nPrivate accounts won’t have this option, as they are already excluded from use.", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/if-you-dont-want-to-let-everyone-use-your-instagram-public-photos-for-ai-heres", "canonical_source": "https://www.fastcompany.com/91571325/meta-muse-image-ai-how-to-opt-out-instagram-public-photos", "published_at": "2026-07-09 13:45:00+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-07-09 14:18:07.681989+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["artificial-intelligence", "ai-ethics", "ai-policy", "ai-products"], "entities": ["Meta", "Muse Image", "Instagram", "WhatsApp", "Messenger", "Facebook", "Fast Company", "Reddit"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/if-you-dont-want-to-let-everyone-use-your-instagram-public-photos-for-ai-heres", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/if-you-dont-want-to-let-everyone-use-your-instagram-public-photos-for-ai-heres.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/if-you-dont-want-to-let-everyone-use-your-instagram-public-photos-for-ai-heres.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/if-you-dont-want-to-let-everyone-use-your-instagram-public-photos-for-ai-heres.jsonld"}}