Meta Scrapes Public Data for AI Training
Meta has acknowledged that it scrapes public posts and photos from Facebook and Instagram to train its AI models, dating back to 2007. Users in the EU can opt out, but those in the US and Australia cannot.
| Score | Value |
|---|---|
Scale | 8 |
Novelty | 6 |
Positivity | 2 |
Reliability | 8 |
Actionability | 3 |
Society | 7 |
Journalism | 5 |
Highlights
- Meta has admitted to scraping public posts and photos from Facebook and Instagram dating back to 2007 to train its AI models.
- Users in the European Union can opt out of having their data used for AI training, while users in the US and Australia do not have this option.
- Meta's global privacy director, Melinda Claybaugh, confirmed during an inquiry that all public posts from Australian users since 2007 have been used for AI training unless set to private.
- Meta does not scrape data from users under the age of 18, but it may use public posts from accounts created by minors once they reach adulthood.
- The company has paused launching AI products in Europe due to regulatory uncertainties regarding data privacy.
Perspectives
- Critics argue that Meta's practices highlight a significant lack of user privacy and consent, as many users may not be aware that their public posts are being used for commercial AI training without an opt-out option. [4][5][7]
- Some believe that the absence of strict regulations in Australia allows Meta to exploit user data without consent, contrasting with the EU's GDPR that provides users with opt-out options. [5][6][7]