Privacy Commissioner Rejects Meta’s Push to Weaken Australia’s Privacy Laws for AI

Meta argued that Australia is ‘out of step with international norms’ regarding privacy regulations.

A smartphone and a computer screen displaying the logos of the Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp, and their parent company Meta in Toulouse, southwestern France, on Jan. 12, 2023. Lionel Bovaventure/AFP via Getty Images

Privacy Commissioner Carly Kind has rejected tech giant Meta’s proposal that Australia relax its privacy regulations to speed up development of AI.

Meta has recently made a submission (pdf) to an inquiry on digital technologies and the harvesting of personal data, where the company argued that Australia is “out of step with international norms” regarding privacy regulations.