Woman Posted a Video With Her Child Singing on Facebook. Then Meta AI Started Revealing Her Family’s Information
Posting a harmless Facebook reel with her child came with an unknown and disturbing downside.
Kalie Robins (@kontheinside) posted a video of her and her daughter singing in the car on Facebook. But after Robins tinkered with the Meta AI questions on her post, she alleged that the tech collated her sensitive information and disclosed it online.
The Meta AI question beneath her post reads, “Who’s the child passenger?” Robins was concerned about the question, pointing out that her daughter is a minor. But out of curiosity, Robins clicked the question, and she said it led to a disturbing discovery.
“It starts pulling completely separate information for each of my kids—their names, birth information, pictures, and videos of them,” Robins alleged. She attached screenshots of Meta AI answers to the suggested inquiries. The chatbot disclosed information it collated online about Robins’ kids.
“It pulled a newborn picture from my mom’s page from years ago,” Robins further alleged. The bot’s ability to collect information didn’t stop at her page but also extended to her mother’s page. Like this woman from Virginia whose perp found her on Facebook, algorithms can connect people online and make suggestions. Nevertheless, Robins was bothered. She claimed even previously deleted information was stored by Facebook and used by Meta AI to profile her.
“I deleted this picture years ago,” she said of a family photo. Robins continued, “I’m not going to pretend that I know how it works. But I know this picture has not been sitting on my page for years.” Aside from details of her family life, Robins alleged Meta AI suggested the question, “Where does Kalie Robins live?”
For her safety and privacy, Robins clicked on the question. Being tracked by an ex has been an unsettling experience for this Wyoming woman. While Robins isn’t being followed, she recognized the danger of having her information exposed online.
Facebook found her location
“It starts digging through completely unrelated [expletive] from years of my life. Old posts connecting me to where I used to live, newer posts connecting me to where I live now,” Robins said. Then she alleged Meta AI pinpointed her location, and it succeeded.
“It pieced together my information to show people where I live,” Robins stated. She added that there was no location pinpointed on the Facebook reel she posted with her daughter. Robins maintained that it was nothing more than a singing video with her daughter. Yet, by asking the right questions through Meta AI, Robins alleged that it built a profile of her and her family.
“Yesterday, I did not understand posting separate, innocent pieces of our lives over years could mean an AI could sit there and assemble all those breadcrumbs into information about my minor children,” Robins said. To remedy the situation, she decided to remove identifiable pictures and videos of her kids. She also advised her friends and loved ones to save those videos and photos, then delete them from social media to protect her family’s privacy.
In a follow-up video, Robins said she was called a “horrible parent” for posting her kids online. Some commenters claimed that it should have been common knowledge not to post about her children on social media. She responded, “But I’ve also gotten comments and messages from parents who didn’t know.”
After her initial post went viral, Robins said other parents told her they intend to be more cautious about their children online. Social media users have also reached out, asking permission to use her video for educational purposes. “I can’t change what I understood before this or didn’t understand before this, but I can change what I do now that I do understand it,” Robins expressed.
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