Meta Platforms, Inc. has announced a significant modification to its privacy policy, effective December 16th. This policy update will incorporate the content of user interactions with its generative AI features to enhance content personalization and advertisement recommendations across its platform ecosystem.
This update stipulates that all interactions, including voice and text-based exchanges with Meta AI, will be utilized to refine recommendation algorithms. The stated objective is to “improve the recommendations we provide for people across our platforms so they’re more likely to see content they’re actually interested in” and mitigate the presentation of irrelevant content.
Meta provides the following illustrative example: discussions with Meta AI pertaining to hiking may result in the user receiving recommendations for hiking groups, content from friends concerning trail information, or advertisements for hiking equipment. This policy change applies to both Facebook and Instagram, and encompasses AI functionalities within WhatsApp, which are also powered by Meta AI.
Users will be formally notified of this policy alteration beginning on October 7th. While complete opt-out functionality will not be available, users will retain the ability to adjust content and advertisement preferences, as is currently the case. Certain categories of conversations will be excluded from this data utilization. Discussions pertaining to religious affiliations, sexual orientation, political viewpoints, health conditions, racial or ethnic origin, philosophical beliefs, and trade union membership will not be leveraged for advertisement personalization.
Meta reports that over one billion individuals engage with Meta AI monthly. Consequently, this privacy policy adjustment will impact a substantial portion of the global user base.
