Follow Okaz channel on WhatsApp.

In a long-awaited move to dispel privacy concerns troubling millions of users worldwide, Instagram has finally returned control to account holders, granting them the key to dictate how artificial intelligence uses their photos and facial features.

This responsive update from Meta aims to address growing fears about digital privacy violations, as the platform introduced an opt-out feature that requires users to manually intervene to block the exploitation of their visual data. The significance of this change lies in the fact that public accounts were automatically enrolled in the 'Imagine Me' feature—a functionality that allows the Meta AI assistant to generate and compose entirely new personal photos inspired by the user's facial features simply by referencing their account.

To regain full control and stop this automatic integration, public account holders can now go to their profile, tap the main menu (three lines), navigate to 'Sharing and Reuse,' and disable the options 'Allow people to create content and reuse your content.' The platform reassured private account holders and minors that they are automatically exempt from this feature, stressing that disabling the option will prevent any future use of photos, while previously generated AI photos can be removed and permanently deleted via the 'Delete my AI photos' option in Meta AI settings.