Commentary: A judge just gave us 25 billion reasons why Meta's privacy promises about its Muse AI bot shouldn't be trusted

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Set us as preferred A New Mexico judge just issued a remarkable warning for users of Muse, the new AI-powered bot marketed by Meta Platforms: Sign up for this thing at your own risk.Judge Francis J.

Mathew didn’t specifically mention Muse in the blistering findings of facts he issued Wednesday, in which he socked Meta with a $25-billion penalty for its “lies” and “false promises” to protect the privacy of its users and keep their personal data secure.Mathew laid out the “systematic pattern of deception” about those issues and others that Meta engaged in over more than a decade.

Some of those “lies,” as it happens, are very much like the promises Meta has made about the security of Muse.Penalties, consent agreements and decrees have not deterred Meta from using deceptive trade practices.— New Mexico Judge Francis J.

MathewAs recently as Wednesday, during a conference call for investment analysts about the company’s third-quarter financial results, Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg boasted of the “state-of-the art privacy and security” that Meta has vested in Muse.The truth is that throughout its history, as I noted recently and Mathew set forth in great detail, Meta has been a serial violator of its users’ privacy.

In the past, that has cost the company dearly, though perhaps not enough.In 2019, the Federal Trade Commission hit the company, then known as Facebook, with a record $5-billion fine for violating the terms of a 2011 FTC settlement over privacy practices.

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