Meta has been scraping photos and data of Australian adult Facebook and Instagram users to train its AI models. Photo: File.
The head of the parliamentary committee examining the use of artificial intelligence has blasted social media giant Meta/Facebook for serious breaches of Australia’s privacy and copyright laws.
Labor Senator Tony Sheldon, who chairs the Senate Select Committee on Adopting Artificial Intelligence (AI), said grave concerns were exposed about Meta’s “blatant disregard for privacy and copyright laws in its AI development” when the company’s representatives appeared before the committee on Wednesday (11 September).
Meta’s vice president of public policy Simon Milner and its global privacy policy director Melinda Claybaugh gave evidence to the hearings, during which it admitted scraping photos and data of Australian adult Facebook and Instagram users in order to train its AI models.
There is no opt-out option for Australian users, but there are for European users of the platforms.
Answering Senator Sheldon’s questions, Ms Claybaugh initially rejected the suggestion that it was using the data of Australians for AI purposes and had done so since 2007.
“We have not done that,” she said.
Greens Senator David Shoebridge did not accept that answer.
“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,” Senator Shoebridge said.
“That’s the reality, isn’t it?”
Ms Claybaugh then answered, “Correct.”
She also admitted that opt-out options were not available to Australian users.
“In Europe there is an ongoing legal question around what is the interpretation of existing privacy law with respect to AI training,” Ms 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 Sheldon subsequently issued a statement condemning Meta over the practices it had just admitted to.
He said despite Meta’s claims of responsible AI use, it became “abundantly clear” that the company’s practices represent a direct assault on privacy, data protection and the rights of creators.
“Their brazen exploitation of personal photos, videos and other intimate content to fuel its AI ambitions revealed the company’s utter disregard for ethical standards,” Senator Sheldon said.
“Meta must think we’re mugs if they expect us to believe someone uploading a family photo to Facebook in 2007 consented to it being used 17 years later to train AI technology that didn’t even exist at the time.
“The personal moments people share – photos, videos and records of people’s lives, their children and their families – are not fodder for a tech company to turn into new products. It’s an unprecedented violation of what makes us human.
“It’s not just dishonest; it’s predatory.
“If our privacy laws allow this, they need to be changed.”
Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus has flagged the introduction of legislation to address such issues.
Meta disclosed in a US court that one of the largest datasets used to train its AI is Books3, which includes nearly 200,000 pirated works.
Reports of this development have indicated that this dataset features thousands of works by Australian creators, further raising concerns about copyright infringement.
Senator Sheldon said Meta’s representatives offered no concrete solutions or commitments to address these issues.
He described their responses as “evasive” and said that their “refusal to tackle core issues” surrounding consent, privacy and copyright highlights a disturbing lack of accountability.
“Meta is being sued in the United States for using a database of 200,000 pirated books, including thousands of Australian works, to train its AI,” he said.
“Like Google and Amazon, Meta claims anything it can access publicly on the web is fair game to monetise, even if that includes copyrighted or pirated material. This isn’t innovation – it’s daylight robbery.
“It’s theft on a global scale and makes a mockery of the entire existence of copyright protections.”
Senator Sheldon said the Senate committee will continue to explore these issues, with a renewed focus on how Australian laws need to adapt to protect citizens from the misuse of their personal data and creative works by tech giants like Meta.
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