Meta announced Tuesday that it will use information shared by other companies to personalize users’ feeds and responses from its artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot, expanding its reach beyond targeted ads.
“Companies often share information with us about people’s activities on their sites to make their ads more relevant,” Mehta said in a statement.
“We already use this data to make the ads you see more relevant to you, such as the games you play and the purchases you make on other websites. In the future, we plan to use this information to personalize other parts of your experience, such as the content you see in your feed and AI responses.”
The social media giant emphasized that it is not collecting new data as part of the update, adding that users are in the driver’s seat and can decide how this information is used for personalization.
To this end, Meta is streaming controls by extending the “Activity from other businesses” setting (previously known as “Activity information from advertising partners”) to give you better control over how data from other businesses is used for this purpose. The “Activities without Metatechnology” setting is deprecated.
“If you allow us to use this data to show you personalized content, the ads and other content you see will be more relevant to you,” the company said. “For example, if you recently purchased a tent online, you may see more camping reels.”
However, if you do not allow it, the content you see will be based on your other activity on the platform, such as likes on Reels and posts. It’s also worth pointing out that businesses can also share customer lists with Meta (such as those who have signed up to receive emails), and those lists will be served relevant ads.
According to Meta, this new option will give users control over how their data is used to deliver both advertising and non-advertising content. The changes will take effect next month in the United States and a number of other countries, including the United Kingdom, Brazil, Thailand, South Africa, Turkey, South Korea, Ecuador, Nigeria and Kenya.
