Meta is preparing to integrate data from your conversations with its artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot into its advertising and content recommendation systems. The tech giant believes this approach will lead to more efficient content delivery. Users can expect to receive notifications about this significant change via in-app alerts and emails starting October 7, ahead of its full implementation in December. Furthermore, Meta assures users that they will have various tools to manage and fine-tune the advertisements and content suggestions they encounter.
Your Meta AI Chats Will Soon Influence Your Ads and Content, Starting December 16
This new policy, effective December 16, means that your interactions with Meta AI will be actively used to personalize the content and advertisements you see across Meta’s extensive ecosystem. As previously stated, Meta plans to begin informing users about this update through in-product notifications and direct emails from October 7.
Consequently, platforms like Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Threads will leverage insights from your voice and text conversations with Meta AI to curate a more ‘interesting’ feed, including posts and reels, and present ‘more relevant’ advertisements tailored to your perceived preferences.
Meta asserts that this enhancement will significantly refine user recommendations, ensuring individuals only see content truly aligned with their interests. For instance, if you discuss hiking with Meta AI, you might then see suggestions for hiking communities, friends’ posts about trails, and advertisements for hiking gear on Instagram and Facebook.
Despite this, Meta emphasizes that users will retain control over their content experience. The company’s blog highlights existing tools like ‘Ads Preferences’ and other feed control options, which users can utilize to customize the types of content and ads they receive.
Crucially, Meta clarifies that sensitive topics discussed with its AI, such as religious views, sexual orientation, political beliefs, health information, racial or ethnic origin, philosophical convictions, or trade union membership, will not be utilized for targeted advertising. However, the company’s statement did not explicitly confirm whether these categories would also be excluded from influencing general content recommendations like posts and reels.
It’s important to note that Meta will only process information from accounts linked within a user’s ‘Accounts Centre.’ This means if your WhatsApp account isn’t connected, your Meta AI interactions on WhatsApp will not be factored into content or ad personalization.