Meta Defaults to Using Instagram Photos for AI Image Generation

Meta has launched Muse Image, its first in-house image generation model, and built it directly into Instagram. The side effect of the new feature is stirring up more controversy than the technology itself: any user can tag a public account by name in a Meta AI prompt and get back an image generated from that person's photos, without their knowledge or consent.

The mechanism works through Instagram's effects section and the Meta AI app. Simply typing a public account's username into a prompt is enough for the system to pull that person's profile pictures and posts to build a new image, mimicking the person's look and style. The tool can alter faces, turn photos into digital "pins," or create personalized cards and invitations.

Default Consent Without Asking

The core issue lies in the default settings. Meta has decided that having a public Instagram account amounts to automatic consent for Meta AI to use your photos. To opt out, users have to go to their profile, open the menu in the top right corner, scroll to the Sharing and Reuse section, and separately disable the option for posts and for Stories.

The company sends no notification when someone's photos are used to generate a new image. A user can only find out by chance, if they happen to come across an image shared by someone else. What's more, withdrawing consent in the settings only applies going forward; images already created using a person's photos stay in circulation.

Adding a username lets Meta AI use public photos to create an image ready to share. - Meta statement

Criticism and Comparisons

Commentators have pointed to the contrast with other companies' approaches. Samsung previously introduced restrictions in its AI photo editing tools on processing images containing third parties' likenesses, precisely because of privacy risks. Meta has gone the opposite direction, treating this as a "personalization" feature that users have to consciously turn off, rather than consciously turn on.

Muse Image is entering a market where it already competes with Google's Nano Banana 2 and OpenAI's GPT Images 2.0. The difference is that competitors don't offer a mechanism for tagging someone else's account to recreate their likeness from public photos. It's precisely this element of the feature that has triggered a wave of critical coverage in recent days.

What Polish Users Can Do

For Polish Instagram users, the key step is the opt-out path described above, plus an additional tool available under EU data protection rules. In the app's Privacy Center, users can invoke the "right to object" and submit an email form demanding that Meta's AI systems stop processing their photos, independent of the general toggle in the sharing settings.

Lawyers specializing in GDPR compliance note that enabling such a feature by default for millions of accounts, without clear prior consent, could raise questions about compliance with EU rules on processing personal likenesses. So far, no supervisory authority in the European Union has announced formal proceedings in the matter, but the issue is surfacing in discussions among data protection specialists alongside ongoing work on the next stages of the AI Act rollout.

For creators and businesses using Instagram commercially, this means actively managing privacy settings, especially if a profile features photos of employees, clients, or recognizable faces. Brands that publish material showing third parties should check consent for using those images in light of Meta's new feature too, not just their own publishing policy.

Sources: Meta Lets Your Instagram Photos Be Used to Create AI Images (rmf24.pl), Your Photos Could End Up in AI, How to Turn Off the Feature (chip.pl)