Meta will soon use your conversations with its AI assistant to personalize the ads you see on its platforms. The change, which goes into effect on December 16th, means you’ll also start seeing suggested posts, reels, and Facebook groups related to your AI text and voice chats, too.
So if you ask Meta AI about hiking, Meta might learn that you’re interested in the topic and show recommendations for hiking groups on Facebook, posts from friends about local trails, or ads for hiking boots. Meta says it receives these same indicators when you perform other actions on its platforms, such as liking a post or page related to a certain topic.
Meta says it won’t use AI conversations about religious views, sexual orientation, political views, health, racial or ethnic origin, philosophical beliefs, or union memberships to personalize content. “We have existing policies around the information that people might consider sensitive, and those will continue to apply,” Meta privacy head Christy Harris said during a press briefing. You can also continue to adjust your ad preferences from your settings menu, but you can’t opt out of having your AI chats used for personalization.
If you’ve linked your Facebook, Instagram, or WhatsApp accounts in Meta’s accounts center, the company may also use your interactions with its AI chatbot on one platform to serve you ads or recommendations on another. That includes any one-on-one conversations with Meta AI in apps like WhatsApp and Messenger, though Meta’s “treatment of encrypted conversations will not be changing with this privacy policy update,” according to Harris.
Meta will begin notifying users about this change on October 7th. It will roll out to most users around the world, but the launch won’t include the UK, the European Union, or South Korea while the company sorts out regulatory requirements.
