Meta on Tuesday announced that it will use information shared by other businesses to personalize users' feed and responses from its artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot, expanding its scope beyond targeted ads.
"Businesses often share information about people's activity on their sites with us to make ads more relevant," Meta said in a statement.
"We already use this data - like games you play or purchases you make on other websites - to make the ads you see more relevant. In the future, we'll use this information to personalize other parts of your experience, including the content you see in your Feed and AI responses."
The social media giant emphasized that it's not collecting any new data as part of the update, adding users are in the driver's seat and that they get to decide how this information is used for personalization.
To that end, Meta is streaming its controls by expanding the "Activity from other businesses" setting (formerly "Activity information from ad partners") to better manage how data from other businesses are used for this purpose. The setting "Your activity off Meta technologies" will be discontinued.
"If you allow us to use this data to show you personalized content, the ads and other content you see will be more relevant," the company said. "For example, if you've recently purchased a tent online, you might see more Reels about camping."
However, if users don't allow it, the content shown will be based on other activity on its platforms, such as liking a reel or post. It's worth pointing out that businesses can also share customer lists with Meta - e.g., those that have signed up to receive emails - who are then served relevant ads.
Meta said the new option allows users to manage how the data is used to serve both ads and non-ad content. The change is expected to go into effect in the U.S. and a number of other countries, including the U.K., Brazil, Thailand, South Africa, Turkey, South Korea, Ecuador, Nigeria, and Kenya, starting next month.
