Canada privacy commissioner to investigate X’s use of personal data in AI training News
Kim Shiflett, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Canada privacy commissioner to investigate X’s use of personal data in AI training

Canadian Privacy Commissioner Phillipe Dufresne on Thursday opened an investigation into social media platform X (formerly Twitter). The inquiry will examine whether the platform is complying with Canadian privacy law “with respect to its collection, use and disclosure of Canadians’ personal information to train artificial intelligence models.”

Soon after Elon Musk acquired Twitter and renamed it to X in 2022, Musk-founded company xAI introduced Grok, an AI chatbot, to its users on X. Earlier this month, xAI rolled out Grok-3, the newest version of its chatbot to compete with DeepSeek and OpenAI. Generative AI models like Grok require vast quantities of data to train and develop. Although Grok-3 is said to enhance user experience, some have also raised concerns regarding the ethical implications of AI-generated content, and the potential risk of having X using Candians’ data to train AI to influence their political decision.

The investigative power of the commissioner sourced from the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA). The act is a federal privacy legislation that governs how private-sector organizations can collect, use and disclose personal information in the course of business, and includes rules around consent, disclosure, retention and safeguards of personal data. The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (OPC) conducts independent investigations into complaints on the personal information handling practices of federal public institutions subject to the Privacy Act, as well as complaints involving private businesses subject to PIPEDA. The findings of the investigations may be made public if the Commissioner deems them to be in the public interest.

The investigation follows a complaint filed by a Member of Parliament Brian Masse. He challenged that X may potentially be “using Canadians’ data to train artificial intelligence to influence their political decisions.” In the statement responding to the announcement of the investigation, the New Democratic Party stressed the importance of transparency in algorithms to ensure accountability and counter misinformation. 

This investigation comes in the midst of growing tensions between Canada and the US over trade disputes and digital services tax on US technology giants.

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