X has emerged on the radar of Canada’s privacy regulator, which is investigating whether the social media company’s use of Canadian consumers’ data for AI training violated federal privacy regulations, according to an official statement.
In a statement released last week by the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, the watchdog says it received a complaint regarding X’s practices related to the training of its AI models (Grok), which require large volumes of data. The regulator subsequently launched a probe into the matter.
“The investigation will focus on the platform’s compliance with federal privacy law with respect to its collection, use, and disclosure of Canadians’ personal information to train artificial intelligence models,” the statement reads.
According to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner, the “matter involves an active investigation” and, therefore, it cannot provide additional details regarding the probe. The investigation is being conducted under the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA).
The complaint was filed by lawmaker Brian Masse of the New Democratic Party, who urged the regulator to launch an investigation into X. “I’m pleased to see the privacy commissioner agree to launch an investigation into X’s use of Canadians’ data,” Masse said. “Transparency and sunlight are crucial at a time when algorithms could be manipulated to spread misinformation.”
X has not issued any statement on the probe yet.
