Meta to update terms allowing it to scan business websites — Ars Technica
On October 30, Meta will update its commercial terms for business accounts. They will require users to grant the company and its representatives permission to automatically access domains, webpages, and URLs associated with their goods or services. As Ars Technica reports, the new rules also allow Meta to use this content for the development, research, training, and support of its own products and services.
Access without a separate opt-out
The terms mention the use of scrapers, bots, robots, spiders, crawlers, and other automated programs to access, index, cache, analyze, collect, and retrieve content. The document also includes provisions on creating test credentials. Businesses are not provided with a separate option to opt out of these terms: Meta suggests that those who disagree stop using its services.
The rules themselves do not directly mention artificial intelligence. However, legal experts interviewed by Nieman Lab link the wording on training and automated data collection to the potential use of materials for AI training. This is of particular concern to publishers, which could license access to their materials for such purposes.
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Meta's position and lawyers' assessment
A Meta spokesperson told Nieman Lab that the company does not plan to use the new terms as a legal basis for ignoring robots.txt instructions, which websites can use to restrict crawling. Meta also says it is not changing its approach to using web crawlers and that content owners will continue to be able to manage access through robots.txt.
The company called the change a consolidation of provisions that had previously been contained in different documents, including terms for generative AI in advertising. At the same time, Ars Technica notes that the updated version contains broader wording, including on test credentials. Previously, a similar provision appeared in the agreement for sellers, where it concerned the optimization of product listings and content.
Three lawyers who spoke with Nieman Lab said it is unclear whether courts would recognize such terms as binding. At the same time, they believe Meta will be able to refer to them in arguing for the right to scan the content of news websites and use it to train its AI products.
