Facebook is now seeking users' permission to access their phone's camera roll, leveraging AI to suggest edited versions of their photos, even those not yet uploaded to the platform. This feature is presented to users when creating a new Story on the app, with a prompt for "cloud processing" to enable creative suggestions. By granting permission, Facebook can generate collages, recaps, AI restylings, and photo themes from your camera roll, uploading media to its cloud servers based on factors like time, location, or themes.
While Facebook assures that only you can view the suggestions and the media is not used for ad targeting, tapping "Allow" means agreeing to Meta's AI Terms. This allows Meta's AI to analyze your media and facial features, using the date and presence of people or objects in your photos to craft creative ideas. This tool exemplifies the complex relationship between personal media sharing and AI providers, with Meta aiming to gain an edge in the AI race by tapping into users' personal, unshared photos.
Meta's AI Terms for image processing state that once shared, users agree to have their images, including facial features, analyzed by AI. This processing enables Meta to offer innovative features like summarizing image contents, modifying images, and generating new content based on the image. The terms also grant Meta's AIs the right to "retain and use" any shared personal information to personalize its AI outputs, with the company noting that it can review user interactions with its AIs, including conversations, which may involve human review. The terms do not clearly define what Meta considers personal information, beyond mentioning "information you submit as Prompts, Feedback, or other Content."
The feature has not sparked significant backlash, with only a few users raising questions about it. Some have discovered Facebook's AI-generated photo suggestions while creating new stories, such as an old photo being automatically turned into an anime using Meta AI. To disable this feature, users can navigate to the "Camera roll sharing suggestions" section in the app's Settings, where they can enable or disable "cloud processing" for AI image creation.
Meta's AI terms have been enforceable since June 23, 2024, and the company does not keep a record of previous versions, making it difficult to compare current terms with older ones. This feature extends beyond Meta's previous announcements regarding training its AIs on publicly shared data, including posts and comments on Facebook and Instagram. EU users had until May 27, 2025, to opt out of this data sharing.