Facebook has admitted that it scrapes the public photos, posts and other data of Australian adult users to train its AI models and provides no opt-out option, even though it allows people in the European Union to refuse consent.

In short:

Facebook is scraping the public data of all Australian adults on the platform, it has acknowledged in an inquiry.

The company does not offer Australians an opt out option like it does in the EU, because it has not been required to do so under privacy law.

What’s next?

Facebook representatives could not say whether an opt-out option would be offered to Australians in the future.

  • @[email protected]English
    22•3 months ago

    This is a key factor. It’s not possible to avoid being in their system at this point unless you live under a rock.

    • @micka190English
      3•3 months ago

      I was having this discussion with a coworker after Apple’s event where they talked about their image scanning AI. Like, if someone takes a picture of me, and sends it to the AI’s servers, they’ll use it as training data, but I haven’t consented to it. So how does taking it down work?

      It’s obviously a rhetorical question. They obviously won’t, and they’ll tell me to pound sand.

      • @[email protected]English
        1•3 months ago

        I think it’s a really important question though, and one that bears repeating again and again. AI was built on a complete disregard for consent, and that continued disregard makes it all very unconscionable.