Meta has announced that conversations with its AI assistant will soon be used for targeted advertising. If you’re the kind of person that notices ads for products just after you spoke about them, you won’t be happy about this update.
Meta AI is the company’s generative AI assistant, built into Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger, and Threads. It can answer questions, generate text or images, and recommend content.
Users will soon start to receive notifications about how their interactions with Meta’s generative AI features will be used for targeted advertising. So, ask Meta AI about vacations, hobbies, or new gadgets, for example, and you might soon find related ads in your feed.
Certain topics are excluded—religious views, sexual orientation, political views, health, racial or ethnic origin, philosophical beliefs, or trade union membership—but everything else is fair game.
Meta said this update takes effect on December 16, 2025, and will start notifying users on October 7, 2025 through in-product notifications and emails.
Thanks to stricter privacy laws, users in the EU, UK, and South Korea are exempt, The Register reports.
According to Meta, over 1 billion people use its AI every month. And as we all know, targeted ads bring in more money than generic ones. So, this is how Meta plans to earn back all the money it spent on AI development.
Because, like it or not, Meta isn’t really about connecting friends all over the world. Its business model is almost entirely based on selling targeted advertising space across its platforms.
Generative AI providers are increasingly weaving advertising into their products, especially in free or freemium offerings. Many companies now use AI to create personalized ads directly within user interactions. For example, AI-powered recommendation engines analyze user data and behavior to deliver highly targeted ads, boosting relevancy and engagement. Done well, this approach makes ads feel less intrusive and more like natural content suggestions tailored to individual preferences.
Still, the industry faces big ethical and privacy challenges. Brands and AI providers must balance personalization with transparency and user control, especially as AI tools collect and analyze sensitive behavioral data. Many are turning to opt-in mechanisms, clearer privacy settings, and responsible data use policies to maintain user trust while taking advantage of AI’s ability to deliver relevant, personalized ads.
Meta promises that affected users can continue to adjust the content and ads they’re seeing at any time with tools like Ad Preferences and other feed controls.
The Register jokingly suggested we start our Meta AI chats with something from the “excluded” list, hoping to keep the whole conversation from being used for targeted advertising. Their example:
“Oh, Lord, Meta really thought this was a good idea?”
In the end, it might be better not to share anything too personal with Meta AI, or any chatbot for that matter, and stick to kittens and puppies instead.
We don’t just report on threats – we help protect your social media
Cybersecurity risks should never spread beyond a headline. Protect your social media accounts by using Malwarebytes Identity Theft Protection.
