The Dark Side of Meta's AI Tools Revealed | Mandurah Mail

Meta admits scraping Aussie data to train AI tools | Mandurah Mail ...

Australians are becoming increasingly concerned about the protection of their personal information from tech giants like Meta. Recent revelations have shown that Meta has been harvesting data, including photos of children, from platforms like Facebook and Instagram to train its generative AI tools. This has raised significant privacy concerns among experts in the field.

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During a recent Senate inquiry into Adopting Artificial Intelligence in Canberra, Meta executives admitted to using photos and posts shared by Australians on their platforms dating back to 2007. The company's global director of privacy policy, Melinda Claybaugh, confirmed that this data was being used to train AI models such as Llama and Meta AI. While Meta claimed to not use photos posted by children under 18, any photos shared by adults, including those of children, were fair game for training their AI tools.

Concerns and Calls for Legal Protection

Politicians and academics have raised the alarm about Meta's data harvesting practices, emphasizing the need for stronger legal protections for Australian users. Labor Senator Tony Sheldon, who chaired the inquiry, criticized Meta's use of personal photos as "an unprecedented violation" and called for immediate legal restrictions on such behavior.

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RMIT University's associate dean of technology and information, Dana McKay, echoed these concerns, highlighting the need for new privacy laws to regulate tech companies like Meta. McKay emphasized that many Australian users were unaware of how their data was being used and questioned the benefits of such data scraping.

Defending the Practice

Despite the backlash, Meta's Asia Pacific public policy vice-president, Simon Milner, defended the company's data practices. Milner argued that harvesting local information was essential to address AI risks such as bias. He acknowledged the complexity of Meta's lengthy privacy policy but stressed the importance of balancing user experience with data sharing requirements.

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The Senate committee, which has also heard from other tech giants like Amazon, Microsoft, and Google, is expected to release a final report on AI regulation by September 19. The ongoing inquiry underscores the growing need for robust privacy laws to safeguard Australian users from data exploitation by tech companies.

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