Received an email from GitHub before getting out of bed this morning; it said roughly:
We are updating how GitHub uses data to improve AI-assisted coding tools. Beginning April 24, your interactions with GitHub Copilot (including inputs, outputs, code snippets, and related context) may be used to train and optimize AI models unless you opt out.
I was like, “WTF — are they trying to follow the crowd of shady domestic products?” Fortunately there’s an option to disable it, so the first thing I did when I got to work today was quickly turn off this training option.
Where to find the setting
Log into GitHub in your browser, and you’ll immediately see a prominent banner at the top:
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.
Click the “GitHub account settings” link to go there, or enter the address manually:
https://github.com/settings/copilot/features
Privacy settings
At the bottom of the page, find “Privacy - Allow GitHub to use my data for AI model training” and select Disabled to turn it off.
However, I found that my setting was already disabled by default — I probably set it when I first activated GitHub Copilot Pro. Guess I have pretty good security awareness.
Can’t understand
I think GitHub’s move this time is really unfair — I could understand it for free users, but making this the default even for paying subscribers is completely unacceptable. After all, most people are employees and the code they write belongs to their companies, so using it to train AI models makes no sense. The world has gone mad 😓
About the Author 🌱
I am a developer from Yantai, Shandong, China. If you have any interesting topics or software development needs, feel free to email me at: zhongwei.sun2008@gmail.com for a chat, or follow my personal public account "Elephant Tools", See more contact information