Meta scrapes Australian users' data for AI training without opt-out option
Meta admitted to scraping public Facebook and Instagram posts and photos from all Australian adult users since 2007 to train AI systems, without providing an opt-out option unlike European users. The disclosure emerged during parliamentary testimony about Meta's AI deployment practices in Australia.
What happened
Meta has been scraping public Facebook and Instagram photos and posts from Australian users to train artificial intelligence. The scraping applies to all public posts made by Australian users aged over 18 since 2007, according to testimony by Meta's director of privacy policy Melinda Claybaugh to an Australian parliamentary committee.
Reported impact
Australian users do not have an option to opt out of the mass-scraping of their content, unlike European users who were given an opt-out option in response to General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) concerns. Millions of Australians who used Facebook and Instagram have not consented to having their photos, videos, and public post history used to train AI.
Index analysis
Meta paused the launch of its AI product in Europe in July due to GDPR privacy rules and provided European users with an opt-out option. Meta's director of privacy policy stated that the opt-out option in Europe was 'in response to a very specific legal frame' and did not commit to extending such an option to Australian users.
Governance controls
Australian users can set their posts to private prospectively to prevent future scraping, but this does not account for the scraping that has already occurred since 2007. Meta's approach differs from its treatment of European users, who received regulatory guidance on data use for AI training.
Classification
Sources and evidence
This record was researched and written by the Index, based on the following original reporting.