Link: Meta fed its AI on almost everything you’ve posted publicly since 2007

Meta has been using public posts and comments from Facebook and Instagram users since 2007 to train their AI models, without clear communication to its users about these practices. This was acknowledged by Meta's global privacy director, Melinda Claybaugh, during an inquiry when pressed by a senator.

Despite initial denials, Meta confirmed that anything not set to private on user profiles from 2007 has been used to improve their AI technologies. Australian Green Party senator David Shoebridge highlighted the lack of choice for users in keeping their data private.

While Meta's policies state they do not use posts marked as anything but "public," the specifics about the start time and extent of data scraping is vague. The New York Times revealed that previously collected data would not be deleted even if privacy settings are changed.

Regarding children's data, Meta stated they do not scrape information from users under 18. However, they did not clarify whether accounts created when the user was a minor but are now adult accounts would be exempt from scraping.

Meta faces restrictions in Europe and Brazil due to local privacy laws, providing those users the ability to opt-out of such data use. However, other international users, including from Australia, currently lack this option, showing a stark difference in privacy protections based on regional laws.

Australian senator David Shoebridge criticized the government's inaction, leading to Meta continuing to exploit and profit from user data, particularly those of children, across platforms such as Facebook and Instagram. Meta defends its stance by citing regulatory uncertainties in regions without stringent privacy laws. #

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Yoooo, this is a quick note on a link that made me go, WTF? Find all past links here.