Meta will start using your AI chatbot conversations to tune up your social media feeds with more hyper-targeted ads and posts.
The tech giant will begin notifying users about this update on October 7 via notifications and emails, saying “Learn how Meta will use your info in new ways to personalize your experiences.”
The new initiative goes into effect later this year on December 16, and there will be no way to opt out.
“We will soon use your interactions with AI at Meta to personalize the content and ads you see, including things like posts and reels,” Meta shared in a press release.
That means any time you interact with one of Meta’s many AI features, the information you give in that chat will be used to serve you hyper-personalized ads and posts. For example, if you go on WhatsApp and ask for Meta AI’s help about a hiking trip, your Facebook feed will be filled with recommendations to join hiking groups, you will suddenly see more Instagram posts from your friends about hiking trails, or get ads for hiking boots on Threads.
No topic is off limits for ad personalization except for discussions on religious views, sexual orientation, political views, health, racial or ethnic origin, philosophical beliefs, or trade union membership, Meta shared in the press release.
But the company’s track record on AI guardrails is not exactly squeaky clean: Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri opened an investigation into Meta in August over a leaked report that revealed the company’s AI chatbots were allowed to engage in “sensual” conversations with children. The company’s chatbots were also under fire recently for impersonating some celebrities without permission.
Meta is going all in on AI with eye-popping multi-billion dollar investments, and the ad business is one way they have started to see it pay off. In Meta’s latest earnings report, ad revenue came in a couple of billion dollars ahead of Wall Street expectations, sending the stock soaring. CEO Mark Zuckerberg attributed that hike to the deployment of artificial intelligence in the ad system and promised investors that ad revenue was bound to increase thanks to more AI in the ads business.
Google, a major competitor to Meta in the ads business, also uses AI to maximize ad revenue, but that effort does not yet include using Gemini chat history for personalized ads.
Meta is already one of the biggest kingpins in the world of targeted ads. Every decision you make on Meta’s social media platforms factors into what ads and other content they serve you up.
Although this is legal in the United States, it has been met with ire elsewhere. The European Union, thanks to strict digital privacy laws aimed at protecting user data, has been a regulatory headache to Meta’s ads business in Europe, with countless fines and lawsuits. In a high-profile case last year, an EU court ruled in favor of Austrian activist Max Schrems after he claimed that Meta used his sexual orientation (which he had never revealed on the internet, save for on a panel that had nothing to do with Meta’s platforms) to serve him personalized ads.
The new update won’t initially be available in the European Union. The United Kingdom and South Korea will also be barred for now as Meta takes a staggered approach with the rollout. Both countries also have strict data privacy laws similar to the EU’s, and Meta just recently settled a landmark privacy lawsuit in the UK over targeted ads.
