During a Senate inquiry yesterday, it emerged that the company is secretly collecting and using photographic images of ordinary Australians to train its artificial intelligence models, raising serious privacy concerns.
Meta’s guardian firm, Facebook, asserts that this exclusion pertains not only to data from users who’ve designated their posts as “personal” but also to photographs and information belonging to individuals under the age of 18, marked for protection.
As corporations like Meta are under no obligation to disclose the specific data used or utilized, we can only accept their word on this matter. Despite this, concerns persist that customers may unwittingly be caught up in Meta’s use of their data for purposes they did not explicitly agree to.
Customers can take several steps to boost the privacy of their personal data.
Thousands of Australians unwittingly contribute their personal content to train Meta’s Artificial Intelligence, while it has been revealed to a parliamentary committee that unlike Europeans, we cannot opt-out.
— News First Sydney
Knowledge hungry fashions
AI fashions are information hungry. They require . The web provides ready access to information that is easily digestible in a format that does not differentiate between copyrighted materials and personal data.
Concerned citizens are increasingly invested in understanding the potential consequences of widespread, clandestine consumption of personal data and creative endeavors.
Lawyers have sued top-tier AI companies, such as OpenAI, in court for allegedly using training data from news articles without permission. Artists leveraging social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram to showcase their creative endeavors remain deeply invested in their craft.
Many people are worried about the potential for AI to present them with information that is unreliable and misleading. After this system was accused of orchestrating a corrupt and lavish celebration in connection with an alleged overseas bribery scandal.
While generative AI models lack the ability to verify the authenticity of their output, the uncertainty surrounding potential harms stemming from increased reliance on such technologies remains a pressing concern.
In many parts of the world, citizens enjoy a higher level of protection.
In certain countries, legislation ensures that unusual consumers are protected from having their data devoured by artificial intelligence companies.
Meta confirms plans to stop training its large-language model on user data from European customers, offering them a voluntary opt-out option.
Private information is safeguarded within the European Union under the General Data Protection Regulation. The regulation prohibits the use of private information for unspecified “synthetic intelligence technology” without explicit opt-in consent from individuals concerned.
While Australians do not share identical privacy laws, The recent inquiry has intensified demands for enhanced protection of consumers. A new feature has been introduced today, the culmination of several years of development.
Three key actions
Without robust legislation in place, there are three crucial steps Australians can take to effectively safeguard their personal data from corporate entities like Facebook.
Initially, Facebook users can opt to designate their data as “personal”. This might prevent any future scraping; however, it won’t address existing instances or unforeseen activity.
As we navigate the era of artificial intelligence, we will pioneer innovative methods for securing informed consent.
Tech startups are piloting innovative approaches to consent, seeking to capitalise on the AI’s growth and the individuals it has learned from. Their latest endeavour, an innovative project, aims to harness the power of AI by curating creative coaching tools from publicly accessible photographs and images licensed under the Artistic Commons CC0 “no rights reserved” designation.
We will press our authorities to compel AI companies to seek consent before scraping our data and ensure that researchers and the general public can conduct audits of these companies’ compliance with such regulations.
What are the essential human rights that citizens should possess to protect their personal data from technology companies? This dialogue also seeks to integrate an alternative approach to developing AI, one rooted in securing informed consent and safeguarding individuals’ privacy rights.
