Meta Platforms Inc. announced today that, in an effort to improve its targeted advertising across all its platforms, it will start analyzing users’ conversations with AI chatbots.
Users will receive a notification about the change on Oct. 7, while Meta’s privacy policy will be updated on Dec. 16. The new policy will apply to most users around the world, although because of privacy laws, it won’t include the European Union, the U.K. and South Korea.
The information gleaned from conversations with Meta’s bots will also serve to make posts, reels and Facebook groups that appear on users’ accounts more relatable. The company already personalizes ads and content, but this is the first time conversations have been mined to target users.
“Whether it’s a voice chat or a text exchange with our AI features, this update will help us improve the recommendations we provide for people across our platforms so they’re more likely to see content they’re actually interested in — and less of the content they’re not,” the company explained in a blog post today.
Meta gives the example of talking to the chatbot about hiking, perhaps asking for trail information or where to stay overnight. That user will subsequently start seeing ads for, say, hiking boots or excursions to the countryside, while their Facebook feed might fill with Pages on hiking groups or exercise tips.
The personalization will not be related to political views, health, religious views, philosophical beliefs, sexual orientation, racial or ethnic origin, or union memberships, said Meta. “We have existing policies around the information that people might consider sensitive, and those will continue to apply,” Christy Harris, the company’s privacy chief, said at a press briefing.
Users will still be able to adjust their ad settings, but opting out of having their conversations with AI mined will not be an option. If users have linked their accounts on Facebook, Instagram or WhatsApp, the information scraped from the AI chats on each can then be used for personalization on the others.
The data collection will not include chats with humans, something Meta has long been accused of, whether through messaging or audio. The company has continually denied this.
Earlier today, after the announcement about the new personalization effort, Instagram head Adam Mosseri again reminded users, “I swear, we do not listen to your microphone,” which he said wouldn’t just drain your phone’s battery but would be a “gross violation of privacy.”