Meta Scraped Every Australian Adult’s Public Photos to Train AI

Meta, the company behind Facebook and Instagram, has admitted to scraping the public photos and text of every Australian adult Facebook or Instagram user dating back nearly 20 years.

At an Australian inquiry, Meta’s global privacy director, Melinda Claybaugh, was questioned about how Meta leverages user data, including training artificial intelligence (AI) models. Although Claybaugh initially denied that the company had used Australians’ data to train generative AI, she eventually relented under continued pressure.

“The truth of the matter is that unless you have consciously set those posts to private since 2007, Meta has just decided that you will scrape all of the photos and all of the texts from every public post on Instagram or Facebook since 2007, unless there was a conscious decision to set them on private. That’s the reality, isn’t it?” asked Greens senator David Shoebridge, as reported by ABC News in Australia.

“Correct,” Claybaugh responded.

Claybaugh clarified that Meta did not scrape the accounts of those under 18 but admitted that they would have been scraped if children were in public photos posted by adult users. Claybaugh was unable to say whether Meta scraped posts by users who were children at the time they signed up but aged up to adulthood at some point during the period content was scraped.

In the European Union and the United States, Meta app users were alerted that the company would use their data to train generative AI products unless they opted out. Claybaugh admitted that Australians were not given this same option, citing a difference in the “regulatory landscape.”

“In Europe there is an ongoing legal question around what is the interpretation of existing privacy law with respect to AI training,” Claybaugh said. “We have paused launching our AI products in Europe while there is a lack of certainty. So you are correct that we are offering an opt-out to users in Europe. I will say that the ongoing conversation in Europe is the direct result of the existing regulatory landscape.”

Senator Shoebrige told ABC that if the government is worried about the potential harm social media can pose to children, the country should focus its legislative efforts on privacy laws.

“There’s a reason that people’s privacy is protected in Europe and not in Australia, it’s because European lawmakers made tough privacy laws. Meta made it clear today that if Australia had these same laws Australians’ data would also have been protected,” Shoebridge explained.

“The government’s failure to act on privacy means companies like Meta are continuing to monetize and exploit pictures and videos of children on Facebook,” the senator added.

Image credits: Header photo licensed via Depositphotos.