The social media apps harvesting your data for AI

We all know that data is a valuable commodity, whether it’s to build marketing profiles or target advertising. Increasingly it’s also being used to train AI models, but do you know what the sites you use are doing with your information?

Data privacy and removal company Incogni has released its Social Media Privacy Ranking 2025 report, which ranks major social media platforms on user privacy, compliance, and overall data protection practices.

It finds that Meta’s platforms and TikTok now rank as the most privacy-invasive, replacing last year’s leaders, Reddit, Snapchat, and Pinterest. The report also finds that most platforms (12 out of 15) may use personal data to train AI, with only a few explicitly ruling it out.

To compile the study, Incogni assessed the privacy practices of 15 leading social media platforms, including Discord, Pinterest, Quora, Telegram, Snapchat, Twitch, LinkedIn, Reddit, X, YouTube, Facebook Messenger, Instagram, TikTok, WhatsApp, and Facebook. Researchers examined each platform’s AI practices, regulatory penalties, transparency, user consent, and handling of different types of sensitive data to reveal which companies prioritize user protection and which leave users more exposed to risk.

According to their policies Telegram, Twitch, and Discord explicitly state that user data is not used to train AI models. However, Meta’s platforms, along with YouTube, Snapchat, Pinterest, X, and LinkedIn, say that user data may be used to generate AI models.

Discord ranks as the least privacy-invasive platform in the research, followed by Pinterest and Quora. Facebook has received the most fines for privacy violations: once in the US, four times under EU GDPR, and five times in other countries.

LinkedIn says it may collect user race or ethnicity data, while Meta’s products (except WhatsApp) and LinkedIn may collect sexual orientation and health information.

“Social media users have the right to know where and how their personal information is being used, especially given the rise of data breaches and cybercrime in recent years,” says Darius Belejevas, head of Incogni. “This year’s rankings reveal sharp contrasts in data privacy practices among platforms, demonstrating that we must continue to fight for greater transparency, stronger safeguards, and enhanced user control over sensitive information.”

You can get the full Social Media Privacy Ranking 2025 report from the Incogni blog.

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