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European users, testing EU regulators’ approach to privacy enforcement.

Companies are turning back to EU data after the bloc’s data protection authorities in 2024 stopped US tech platforms from training over privacy concerns. OpenAI, Meta, LinkedIn, and X all had their generative AI plans disrupted last year when regulators questioned whether their approach violated the EU’s sweeping privacy statute, the General Data Protection Regulation.

- LinkedIn Corp. and Meta Platforms Inc. are among the companies that have been emboldened to train their artificial intelligence on the personal data of European users, testing EU regulators’ approach to privacy enforcement.

After EU data protection authorities in 2024 stopped US tech platforms from training over privacy concerns, the tide turned this year with companies turning back to EU data. Their approach doesn’t require user consent, rather they’re relying on what’s known as the legitimate interest provision in EU privacy law and giving users the ability to opt out.

While there has been no officially policy pronouncement, the emerging consensus is that businesses can avoid backlash by proving to European regulators that they have a sufficiently strong incentive to use consumer data. The reboot of generative AI training comes amid the EU’s effort to simplify regulatory requirements and bring compliance relief to businesses amid a proliferation of digital rules.

“These big names aren’t going to do something without some kind of tacit understanding that it’s going to be okay,” said Roy Hadley Jr., Atlanta-based special counsel at Morris, Manning, & Martin LLP.

He added, “If you look at the Metas of the world and LinkedIns, and they’re forcing an opt-out on users and consumers in the EU, and you’re not seeing any kind of hue and cry from regulatory authorities or any enforcement action, that is a signal to other companies that you can do something similar.”

Regulatory Blessing?

OpenAI Inc., Meta, LinkedIn, and X Corp. all had their generative AI plans disrupted last year when regulators questioned whether their approach violated the EU’s sweeping privacy statute, the General Data Protection Regulation.

Three of the tech giants—Meta, LinkedIn, and X—stopped processing user information for months. OpenAI was hit with a $15.6 million fine in December—the first generative AI-related penalty under the law—after the Italian privacy regulator found it was processing personal user data to train its ChatGPT chatbot without an adequate legal basis. X is still under investigation by the Irish authority.

OpenAI, Meta, and X didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

But something has shifted this year, as companies engaged with regulators to ensure that their personal data collection and use fits within the bounds of the law.

“It seems that European regulators have landed on a spot where they acknowledge that processing personal data of users of certain services to train AI models by the same companies providing those services is acceptable under ‘legitimate interests,’” Gabriela Zanfir-Fortuna, vice president for global privacy at the Future of Privacy Forum, said in an email.

Beyond the EU, LinkedIn has held talks with the UK Information Commissioner’s Office over its plans. The UK’s privacy law—also called the GDPR—mirrors its EU’s counterpart in its requirements for companies to obtain consent or have a legitimate interest. The Microsoft-owned recruiting platform said Sept. 17 that it would resume training its models in the European Economic Area, the UK, Canada, Hong Kong, and Switzerland.

The UK’s privacy authority said it was “pleased” that LinkedIn had reflected on its concerns and changed its approach accordingly.

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