Meta still training Australians: How to opt out
Meta has made an objection form available to Australians who do not want their public data used to train its AI, but the company did not announce the change…
Meta still training Australians on their public data can be stopped through an objection form the company has made available in Australia since July 2025, though Meta did not announce the option. The form sits within privacy settings, leaving users to find it themselves.
The choice matters to people whose public posts, photos and comments may be used to train Meta’s AI. Private accounts, private messages and accounts listed as belonging to people under 18 are already exempt, Meta says.
The option has been available for more than a year. Awareness is only now spreading through posts shared by users, while digital rights advocates say many people who want to object may not know the form exists.
How can Australians stop Meta using public data?
Users can submit the objection form through Meta’s privacy settings. Meta says it will email people who complete it to confirm their public data will not be used for future AI training.
The form’s existence contrasts with the message Australians received when Meta’s use of user data became a public issue in mid-2024. At that time, Australians were told they could not opt out, unlike people in the European Union, where privacy protections differ.
Meta had offered an objection form in the EU since 2024. In Australia, the form appeared a year later, without a separate announcement or direct notification to users, according to the details confirmed about the change.
That gap has left users relying on one another to share instructions. Tom Sulston of Digital Rights Watch said people must search through Meta’s privacy policies and support pages to locate the option.
“A lot of people who would like to use that option are not going to find out about it,” Sulston said. He added that Meta has a commercial incentive to access as much user data as possible.
Privacy law questions remain
Meta has not explained why it introduced the Australian opt-out, and the relevant sections of the Australian Privacy Act have not changed in recent years. The question of how privacy law applies to AI training remains under consideration by the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner.
The OAIC has previously cautioned that public availability does not automatically make data lawful to use for training AI models. A spokesperson said the office had engaged extensively with Meta and other platforms and planned to publish investigation results in the coming months.
That unresolved legal question gives the form wider significance than a settings change. For users, it provides a way to object to future use of public data, but people who never learn about the form cannot make that choice. Sulston said users had not really been given a choice if they were not informed it existed.
Some privacy advocates have suggested the form could reflect uncertainty about the law or a pre-emptive step as the government considers further privacy-rule changes. Sulston argued that offering an opt-out may allow Meta to say it has taken action without fundamentally changing how data is used.
Meta was approached for comment. The OAIC says it intends to publish its investigation results in the coming months.
