Digital marketing experts say small businesses should pay attention to Meta’s updated terms and services, which give the social media giant the ability to “access, index, cache, analyse, collect, retrieve or crawl” the web pages that business users post to Facebook, Instagram, or WhatsApp.
Fearing Australian businesses reliant on Meta’s platforms have little choice but to accept those terms, at least one digital marketing leader has already raised their concerns with Attorney-General Michelle Rowland.
But Meta is tamping down concerns of data overreach, claiming businesses are still able to prevent Meta’s automated scrapers by tweaking their website settings.
Scraping terms updated
As first reported by Nieman Lab, Meta has quietly adjusted the terms that govern how business and commercial users can use its platform.
The changes, scheduled for October 30, apply to a wide range of businesses running ads, selling products, managing pages, or accessing Meta Business Suite.
Smarter business news. Straight to your inbox.
For startup founders, small businesses and leaders. Build sharper instincts and better strategy by learning from Australia’s smartest business minds. Sign up for free.
By continuing, you agree to our Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.
Related Article Block Placeholder Article ID: 346656
Crucially, the terms authorise Meta to “use automated software (such as web scrapers, bots, robots, spiders, crawlers and user agents)” to access websites associated with the business user.
The terms also suggested that information could be used to “train” Meta products, suggesting company information shared on a third-party website could be used to inform Meta’s Muse AI agent.
Speaking to Nieman Lab, Cornell Law School’s James Grimmelmann said a broad interpretation of those terms would allow Meta to build a “comprehensive archive” of content that Meta’s AI tools could feed back to users.
Allowing Meta AI tools to repackage content on a third-party website would be particularly bad for digital publishers, Grimmelmann said.
But those terms, taken at face value, could also see Meta ingest information that small businesses want to keep siloed on their own websites.
The terms also appear to give Meta’s business users little leeway to opt out.
“If you do not agree to the updated terms, you may stop all access or use of our Products for business or commercial purposes,” the terms state.
Local experts speak out
Business users are already familiar with Meta using content posted directly to Facebook and Instagram, but the escalation to third-party website data has spooked some Australian marketing leaders.
In a blog post, Paul Hewett, CEO of In Marketing We Trust, described the changes as “another significant overreach” that risked an “expanding claim on the rest of your business”.
Hewett took issue with Meta’s ‘take it or leave it’ approach to those updated terms.
“For a business that depends on Facebook or Instagram for enquiries, sales or customer contact, leaving can carry a serious commercial cost,” he wrote on Monday.
“Years of audience building cannot simply be transferred to another platform. The ability to close an account says very little about the freedom to negotiate.”
“Over the weekend, I raised this issue with the Attorney-General because I believed it needed immediate attention,” he added.
Related Article Block Placeholder Article ID: 344861
SmartCompany has contacted Hewett for comment.
Without outright condemning the changes, Charlie Maruff, digital lead at Townsville-based Australia Advertising, said the terms could result in fewer click-throughs to small business websites.
“In my personal opinion, if Meta AI answers a question using your content, [customers] could get their answer without actually looking at your website,” he told SmartCompany.
“It could be out-of-date information as well, so if [Meta] is holding onto an old price or a service, [customers] could see it after you’ve changed something on your site.”
Meta appeared to adjust the forthcoming terms after Nieman Lab‘s report, narrowing their focus to advertising and business products.
The amended clause suggests data gleaned from those scraping and crawling tools will be used to “develop, improve, research and maintain advertising and business products” offered by Meta.
That data would also be used to maintain the “integrity and security” of Meta’s products.
In a statement provided to SmartCompany, a Meta spokesperson said the new crawling terms are meant to consolidate a suite of agreements across its product suite, and are focused on ads and business products.
“It does not change how Meta uses web crawlers,” they said.
While there is no easy opt-out, the spokesperson said business owners can adjust files buried in their website directories to block access to Meta website crawlers.
“As always, content owners can use robots.txt to signal their preferences,” the spokesperson said.
“This is not about scraping news sites, and these updates don’t give us new rights that supersede those preferences.”
While Maruff acknowledged the terms could see Meta users bypass third-party websites, he called on small business owners to consider the implications of adjusting those robots.txt settings, as allowing Meta to crawl those sites could benefit their ranking in AI search results.
“If you if you’re looking to be visible to AI, personally I wouldn’t be turning that Meta external agent off,” he said.
Ultimately, it is up to business owners to consider their own circumstances, and the pros and cons of allowing Meta to access their website data.
“I think small business owners definitely need to know this sort of stuff,” said Maruff.