AI is everywhere now, and most of us still have no idea where these models actually get their training data from. The more I looked into it, the more uneasy I felt — because the answer is often: from us.
Your posts.
Your art.
Your photos.
Your comments.
A lot of platforms train AI on user content, and most people don’t even know it’s happening. Some companies are explicit about it, others hide it in the TOS, and many don’t mention anything at all. There’s no standard, no consistency, and no real transparency.
So I built something that I wish existed:
WTOM (WhoTrainedOnMe) — a browser extension that tells you whether the site you’re visiting might be using your data to train AI.
Why I Built It
I kept running into the same problem:
There is no simple way to know if a website uses your content to train AI models.
Opt-out options (when they exist) are buried.
Policies are vague or intentionally confusing.
Artists and creators feel like their work gets scraped with no consent.
WTOM’s goal is pretty simple:
Give people transparency, and give them a path to say no.
How WTOM Works
The extension checks the domain you’re visiting and matches it with a curated database of:
- Whether the platform trains AI
- How transparent they are about it
- Whether an official opt-out exists
- What users can do next (opt-out or protest)
If the site is flagged, a small, clean widget appears on the page with the details.
No setup required — it just works.
You can:
- Jump directly to the opt-out toggle
- Or send a protest email (formal, gentle, or bold)
- With your info filled in locally
- Nothing stored server-side
- The idea is not to scare people. It’s simply to inform and empower them
The Surprising Part
- While building WTOM, I learned how messy this space really is:
- Many popular sites used in AI training datasets say nothing about it
- Some hide their AI policies behind multiple pages
- Some only offer partial opt-outs
- Some explicitly deny training but still have loopholes
Artists and writers are the most impacted but the least informed
It confirmed one thing for me:
People need tools that bring clarity to all of this.
What’s Next
WTOM is still growing, and there’s more coming:
- Expanding the domain list
- Better accuracy on training + transparency labels
- A small public reference page
- More educational content
- A “transparency score” experiment I don’t think AI is the enemy — but lack of transparency is.
Try it Now
Chrome/Chromium versions: Check it here
Firefox version: Check it here
Your digital life shouldn’t be invisible training data.
WTOM won’t fix everything, but it makes the process visible — and visibility gives you control.
Thanks for reading. If you have thoughts or feedback, I’d love to hear it.
Top comments (1)
Is there a GitHub repo to check out the code?