Meta Admits Scraping Australian Users' Data for AI Training Since 2007 Without Opt-Out Option

Sep 13, 2024, 08:01 AM

Meta has admitted to scraping the public data of all Australian adult users on Facebook and Instagram, including photos and posts, to train its AI models. This practice has been ongoing since 2007, and Australians are not given an opt-out option, unlike European users. Meta's global privacy director confirmed the data scraping during a parliamentary committee session. The lack of privacy regulation in Australia is cited as the reason for not providing an opt-out option. The issue has sparked regulatory scrutiny and discussions about potential new regulations to protect user data. Additionally, child photos are included in the data scraping, and the matter was addressed in a Senate inquiry.