Starlink, SpaceX's satellite internet service, has begun to use its users' personal data to train artificial intelligence models, according to the new privacy policy that came into effect on January 15. The measure affects all customers, including those residing in Catalonia and using the service in urban and rural areas of Barcelona, Girona, and Tarragona
Personal data used in artificial intelligence
The updated policy allows Starlink to access contact information, performance metrics, billing data, and in some cases, communications data such as audio, electronic, or visual information. By default, all users are included in this data processing, although the company offers the option to manually opt-out from the mobile app or website, in the Privacy Preferences section.
The company states that the data can be used to "train our machine learning or artificial intelligence models" and also be shared with third parties for their own AI developments. Additionally, the policy mentions the possibility of generating "inferences" from the collected information
Limitations and clarifications on the use of data
On a separate page, Starlink clarifies that it will not share users' browsing history, individual habits, or location with AI models. However, the policy does contemplate the use of other personal and communication data for the training of automated systemsCurrently, Starlink has more than 9 million users worldwide, which expands the potential reach of the measure
Concern among specialists and security recommendations
"One of the risks is that, during the prompt engineering process in generative models, systems may reproduce fragments of sensitive or private information used in their training, as has been pointed out by the scientific community" - William Budington, digital rights specialist, Electronic Frontier Foundation
The change in the privacy policy coincides with the recent acquisition of xAI by SpaceX. Given this scenario, digital privacy experts recommend the use of a reliable virtual private network (VPN) to encrypt communications and prevent Starlink or other providers from accessing their content
Manual exclusion mechanism
For those who wish to prevent their personal data from being used in artificial intelligence training, Starlink offers a manual opt-out mechanism from the mobile app or website. By unchecking the corresponding option in Privacy Preferences, the system confirms that personal information will no longer be used for this purpose
Starlink's privacy policy update affects its entire user base, including residents in municipalities and neighborhoods of Catalonia who depend on the service for their daily connectivity