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Facebook Meta Scraping Users Data: Facebook (Meta) has been accused many times of using users' data illegally. Now Facebook has made a shocking confession to the Australian government that it has stolen photos and posts of all adult users in Australia. The purpose behind this was to train Meta's artificial intelligence (AI) tool. Meta has been collecting such data since 2007. The Australian government has called Facebook's decision a violation of privacy. Due to this, the company has been threatened with strict action.
What is the whole matter?
Facebook (Meta) has admitted to collecting public photos, posts and other data from Australian adult users since 2007 to train its AI models without providing an opt-out option. However, Europeans can opt out due to strict privacy laws. Australians were not given this option. Melinda Claybaugh, Meta's global privacy director, confirmed that public posts are collected unless the user makes them private.
Has the data of minors also been stolen?
However, data of users under the age of 18 is not scraped. However, if a minor's photo is posted on an adult's account, it could be impacted. Meta says the study is necessary to create better AI tools, but it also raises important privacy concerns.
When did this matter start?
The issue came to the fore when Labor senator Tony Sheldon asked if Meta was using Australians' posts from 2007 to train the AI. Although Claybaugh initially denied this, Greens senator David Shoebridge challenged her, saying that Meta was in fact scraping users' public data, unless users made their posts private. Claybaugh eventually confirmed that this was true. She said that, while Meta does not use data from people under the age of 18, it could be used by the company's AI tools if their photos are public with parents or other adult users.
Australia will implement a strict law
Australian lawmakers are now pushing for stronger privacy laws similar to Europe. 2020 may amend the Privacy Act with some updates after the review.