Meta Confirms Instagram Opt-Out Enrolls Users in 'Likeness Pending' Database for Future Use

SAN FRANCISCO — Meta confirmed Wednesday that users who navigate to Profile → Menu → Sharing and Reuse and toggle off Posts and Reels — thereby completing the four-step opt-out from its Muse Image feature — are automatically enrolled in a program called "Likeness Pending," which retains their facial data for use "when regional consent frameworks evolve to permit it," according to text added to the Muse help page Tuesday evening.

Muse, which launched last week without direct notification to affected users, allows anyone to tag a public Instagram profile in a text prompt and receive AI-generated images based on that person's recent photos. Users who successfully complete the opt-out receive a confirmation screen reading, in full: "Thanks for letting us know your preferences."

"The opt-out reflects a user's current wishes," a Meta spokesperson said. "The Likeness Pending program reflects their future ones."

Users wishing to exit the Likeness Pending program may submit a written request to a support address staffed by Muse. Meta estimates a seven-to-nine-business-day response time; users who do not receive a reply are re-enrolled in the original feature by default.

The program is unavailable in the European Union, where a similar product is expected to launch next quarter under a name not yet disclosed and a legal framework not yet filed.

"I just wanted it to stop," said a public-profile Instagram user who completed the opt-out. "The confirmation email came from an account that had my face as its profile photo. I wasn't sure if that was me."