During a recent Senate inquiry in Australia, Melinda Claybaugh, Meta's global privacy director, confirmed that the company has been using public posts dating back to 2007 for AI training unless users set their posts to private.

This admission raises significant concerns about user privacy, especially as Claybaugh acknowledged that public profiles imply consent for Meta to utilize content for commercial AI products.

Senator David Shoebridge emphasized that Meta has been scraping public posts and images for AI training since 2007, unless users specifically set their posts to private.

This practice has drawn criticism from Australian regulators, who argue that Meta is exploiting user content without proper consent.

The inquiry follows recent government discussions about banning social media for children due to concerns over online harms, further highlighting the need for stricter data protection.

In response to these issues, Australian senators are contemplating stricter data protection laws, potentially modeled after European regulations.

Upcoming legislation could impact not only Meta but also other major generative AI companies like OpenAI, Apple, and Google, potentially leading to delays in their services.

This situation underscores the importance of transparency in how tech companies handle user data, emphasizing the necessity for users to be informed about data usage.

Meta claims that a large amount of data is essential for developing its AI tools, arguing that this is necessary to create more flexible and powerful products.

While European users can opt out of data scraping due to local privacy laws, users in Australia currently do not have this option, raising further privacy concerns.

Senator Tony Sheldon criticized Meta's data practices as a violation of personal privacy, calling for stronger regulations to protect users.

Meta has faced scrutiny in Australia previously, including blocking users from sharing news articles in 2021 over legislation requiring compensation for publishers.