How To Stop New Instagram Image Tool Muse From Using Your Photos Without Asking You?

Meta just launched a new AI image generator, and it’s already got people uneasy, for reasons that go beyond the usual AI image quality debates. On Tuesday, Meta unveiled Muse Image, built by Meta Superintelligence Labs, the company’s dedicated AI research unit. It was internally code-named Mango during development, and it’s now live for free across the Meta AI app, Instagram Stories, and WhatsApp.

What Muse actually lets you create

At a basic level, Muse works a lot like other AI image generators you’ve probably tried. You can create fun, cartoonish images, experiment with different styles, or just play around with ideas. If you’re not sure what to type, Meta has added “presets”, ready-made prompts designed to help spark ideas when you’re stuck.

Muse also supports prompt-based image editing, which means you can tweak existing photos using simple text instructions. Meta’s own example is fairly telling of what they’re going for. “Ask it to mock up an image of you in front of a historical landmark, cleanly erase a photobomber from the background of a shot, or write a custom prompt to build a functional QR code,” the company said.

There are some genuinely useful applications too. One is building custom ads, since AI has been steadily creeping into advertising over the past year. Another is more everyday and practical, letting you experiment with interior decorating ideas. In one of Meta’s own promotional videos, someone uses Muse to picture what a secondhand couch might look like in their garage before buying it. This feature is designed to tie directly into Facebook Marketplace, Meta’s popular platform for buying and selling used furniture and items.

The feature causing genuine concern

Here’s the part that’s raised eyebrows. Muse includes a feature that lets users manipulate another Instagram user’s photos using AI, as long as that person’s profile is set to public. All you need to do is tag the person, and Muse can pull their picture to generate a brand new AI image using it.

The Verge was the first to flag just how invasive this could be, and the reaction online has been pretty blunt. One user on X put it simply: “Pulling real users into generated photos without explicit consent is a privacy landmine waiting to detonate.”

According to Meta’s own policy, “people may be able to create content with your Instagram content using AI features at Meta,” and notably, “you will not be notified about content created using AI features at Meta.” So if someone uses your public photo to generate an AI image, you won’t get any alert about it happening.

Meta says users do have some control here, and there are settings available to opt out of having your pictures used this way. The catch is that this feature works on an opt-out basis, meaning it’s switched on by default unless you actively go in and turn it off yourself.

Why Meta’s history is making this worse

This isn’t happening in a vacuum either. Meta’s past privacy record is a big reason why people are reacting so strongly to this particular feature.

Back in 2019, the company paid a then-record 5 billion dollar fine to the FTC, after regulators found that Cambridge Analytica had improperly harvested data from tens of millions of Facebook users, without their knowledge, to build political targeting profiles ahead of the 2016 US election. What made it worse was that Facebook had reportedly known about this misuse for years before it became public knowledge.

Separately, Meta shut down Facebook’s facial recognition system back in 2021, a tool that used to automatically recognise people in photos and videos, following lawsuits and regulatory pressure over how it collected biometric data without proper consent.

Seen against that backdrop, Muse’s opt-out photo tagging feature fits a pattern that users and regulators have flagged before. Broad use of people’s personal data by default, unless they specifically go out of their way to turn it off.

What else is rolling out alongside Muse

Alongside Muse Image, Meta is also rolling out a set of new AI effects for Instagram Stories, also powered by the same Muse technology at the centre of these privacy concerns. These include customisable filters that can modify existing photos directly within Stories.

Meta says using Muse is free for everyday, casual creation, though users will eventually need a paid subscription plan once they go past a certain usage limit. The company also confirmed that Muse Video, likely an AI video generator, is already in development, though details on that are still thin for now.

This is just the latest in a string of AI products Meta has released over the past year, including an AI assistant called Creator, and Pocket, an app that lets people build simple video games using AI with minimal coding. Despite all this activity, Meta has faced criticism over having a fairly scattered AI strategy, even as it continues pouring significant money into AI infrastructure this year.

For now, if you’re an Instagram user with a public profile, it’s worth checking Muse’s settings directly to see whether your photos can be used this way, rather than assuming you’re automatically protected.