Meta is using AI to learn what adult users post on Facebook and Instagram, but users have no right to opt out
Meta's Director of Privacy Policy Melinda Claybaugh testified at an Australian parliamentary hearing that the company uses content posted by users over the age of 18 in its AI products since 2007 on Facebook and Instagram. Unlike the EU, which has strict privacy laws, users outside the EU, including Australia, are not given the option to opt out of having their posts and photos used, and there are no plans to offer such an option in the future.
Facebook admits to scraping every Australian adult user's public photos and posts to train AI, with no opt-out option - ABC News
According to Australia's public news service ABC News, Claybaugh, who attended a hearing of
But when Senator David Shoebridge pressed him more specifically, saying: 'The truth about this is that Meta has decided to scrape every photo and every text from every public post on Instagram and Facebook going back to 2007, unless you deliberately made the post private?' Claybaugh backed down and said: 'Yes, that's right.'
Claybaugh added that the company doesn't collect data from accounts of users under the age of 18, but when asked about photos of children that are publicly available in posts by adult users, such as parents, he acknowledged that the company does scrape them.
Additionally, the company said it was unable to answer questions about past data collection in cases where people who were minors when they created their accounts have since become adults.
by ABC News: Adam Kennedy
In June 2024, Meta sent messages to European and American users informing them that their data would be used to train AI products unless they opted out.
Notably, EU users are also provided with the option to opt-out of their data usage due to strict EU laws governing the use of user data.
As a result, users outside the EU, such as in the United States and Australia, are not provided with the ability to opt out of their content being used in AI products.
Claybaugh said the opt-out options in Europe are subject to very specific legal frameworks, and did not say whether such an option would be offered to Australian users in the future.
Senator Shoebridge told ABC News: 'There's a reason people's privacy is protected in Europe but not in Australia - it's because European legislators have created tough privacy laws. Meta has said today that if Australia had the same laws, Australians' data would be protected. Governments' failure to protect privacy means companies like Meta can continue to monetise and exploit children's photos and videos on Facebook,' he said, calling for laws to protect the privacy of citizens.
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