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Comment by mentalgear | Hacker News Reader

> On April 24 we'll start using GitHub Copilot interaction data for AI model training unless you opt out. Review this update and manage your preferences in your GitHub account settings.

Now "Allow GitHub to use my data for AI model training" is enabled by default.

Turn it off here: https://github.com/settings/copilot/features

Do they have this set on business accounts also by default? If so, this is really shady.

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Ugh, can't believe they made this opt-in by default, and didn't even post the direct URLs to disable in their blog post.

To add on to your (already helpful!) instructions:

- Go to https://github.com/settings/copilot/features - Go to the "Privacy" section - Find: "Allow GitHub to use my data for AI model training" - Set to disabled

> can't believe they made this opt-in by default

You can't believe Microslop is force-feeding people Copilot in yet another way?

> and didn't even post the direct URLs to disable in their blog post

You can't believe Microshaft didn't tell you how to not get shafted?

He must be new here

I always thought "opt-in" (not "opt in") meant something you have to actively choose to enable; otherwise, it stays off. So calling something "opt-in by default" sounds like a misnomer to me.

But English is not my first language so please correct me if I'm wrong.

You are correct

https://github.com/orgs/community/discussions/188488

> Why are you only using data from individuals while excluding businesses and enterprises?

> Our agreements with Business and Enterprise customers prohibit using their Copilot interaction data for model training, and we honor those commitments. Individual users on Free, Pro, and Pro+ plans have control over their data and can opt out at any time.

Aka "they have lawyers and you usually don't, so we think we can get away with it."

only big companies have access to the legal system. nobody else can afford it

Most of the world aren't American and we can afford our legal systems ;).

Thankfully shariah court is free. Inshallah

> and we honor those commitments.

Ah, so when the inevitable "bug" appears, and we all learn that you've completely failed to honor anything, what will be your "commitment" then? An apology and a few free months?

Time to start pushing for a self hosted git service again.

Yes - not impressed at all that this is opt-in default for business users. We have a policy in place with clients that code we write for them won’t be used in AI training - so expecting us to opt out isn’t an acceptable approach for a business relationship where the expectation is security and privacy.

It is not opt-in by default for business users. The feature flag doesn't show in org policies and github states that it's not scoped to business users.

Gah - you’re right - but given that I don’t use personal copilot - but I do manage an organisation that gives copilot to some of our developers AND I was sent an email this evening making no mention at all of business copilot being excluded it could definitely have been communicated better…

My email does mention it clearly:

> Again, your organization's Copilot interaction data is not included in model training under this new policy, but we are excited for you to enjoy the product improvements it will unlock.

What did everyone expect? I can't understand this community's trust of microsoft or startups. It's the typical land grab: start off decent, win people over, build a moat, then start shaking everybody down in the most egregious way possible.

It's just unusual how quickly they're going for the shakedown this time

Just confirming, we do not use Copilot interaction data for model training of Copilot Business or Enterprise customers.

You shouldn't do it for public by opt-in, it should be opt-out. But that is the Microslop effect on GitHub, users are an afterthought.

Per their blog post

> Business and Copilot Enterprise users are not affected by this update.

Interestingly, it is disabled by default for me.

Me too, which is making me wonder if they're planning on silently flipping this setting on April 24th (making it impossible to opt out in advance).

Is it because I'm in the EU?

I'm in the US and it's off for me. I believe I've previously opted out of everything copilot related in the past if there was anything.

I'm in Canada, so not only the EU at least.

We are not. The reason we wanted to announce early was so that folks had plenty of time to opt-out now. We've also added the opt-out setting even if you don't use Copilot so that you can opt-out now before you forget and then if you decide to use Copilot in the future it will remember your preference.

Would you be able to comment on https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47522876, i.e. explain the legal basis for this change for EU based users? If there is none, you may have to expect that people will exercise their right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority.

Why would you expect an engineer to be able to comment on legal affairs? Presumably it was cleared with Microsoft's legal department or whatever GitHub's divisional equivalent is.

That's precisely what the term 'engineer' signifies. (I know it gets used incorrectly for software developers.) Workers in general need to decide whether something is legal independently of their company, because the company lawyers have the interest of the company in mind, which might conflict with the workers interest to not do illegal things.

Big Tech is known for clearing illegal things by their legal departments all the time.

Reading the github blog post "If you previously opted out of the setting allowing GitHub to collect this data for product improvements, your preference has been retained—your choice is preserved, and your data will not be used for training unless you opt in."

Is this the new name for the setting? I cannot find one that sounds like the previous one you mention

Notable that they have no "privacy" section in account settings

I guess we have to check out again on April 24 ?

We have a business account, and because of issues like this, access to anything CoPilot is blocked.

> Do they have this set on business accounts also by default? If so, this is really shady.

Looks like not, but would it actually have been shadier, or are we just used to individual users being fucked over?

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