Meta won’t allow users to opt out of targeted ads based on AI chats
October 2, 2025
US users stuck with AI ad targeting as EU users win more control over their feeds.
Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp users may want to be extra careful while using Meta AI, as Meta has announced that it will soon be using AI interactions to personalize content and ad recommendations without giving users a way to opt out.
Meta plans to notify users on October 7 that their AI interactions will influence recommendations beginning on December 16. However, it may not be immediately obvious to all users that their AI interactions will be used in this way.
The company’s blog noted that the initial notification users will see only says, “Learn how Meta will use your info in new ways to personalize your experience.” Users will have to click through to understand that the changes specifically apply to Meta AI, with a second screen explaining, “We’ll start using your interactions with AIs to personalize your experience.”
Ars asked Meta why the initial notification doesn’t directly mention AI, and Meta spokesperson Emil Vazquez said he “would disagree with the idea that we are obscuring this update in any way.”
“We’re sending notifications and emails to people about this change,” Vazquez said. “As soon as someone clicks on the notification, it’s immediately apparent that this is an AI update.”
In its blog post, Meta noted that “more than 1 billion people use Meta AI every month,” stating its goals are to improve the way Meta AI works in order to fuel better experiences on all Meta apps. Sensitive “conversations with Meta AI about topics such as their religious views, sexual orientation, political views, health, racial or ethnic origin, philosophical beliefs, or trade union membership “will not be used to target ads, Meta confirmed.
“You’re in control,” Meta’s blog said, reiterating that users can “choose” how they “interact with AIs,” unlink accounts on different apps to limit AI tracking, or adjust ad and content settings at any time. But once the tracking starts on December 16, users will not have the option to opt out of targeted ads based on AI chats, Vazquez confirmed, emphasizing to Ars that “there isn’t an opt out for this feature.”
Meta likens recommendations based on AI chats to those based on liking a photo or following a page. But consider how much more Meta can glean from a user interacting with AI about their love of hiking than it can from a user liking a photo or following a hiking group page.
Many reports document that people tend to overshare with AI, which many ChatGPT users regretted after their private chats temporarily started appearing in Google search results. Meta faced a similar controversy when users realized that the Meta AI app’s Discover tab “was full of conversations with a chatbot that people didn’t realize had been posted to a public feed,” Business Insider reported, noting, “That was really bad! A huge privacy headache!” For that reason, Meta users who don’t want to see targeted content and ads based on more revealing chats may want to alter their habits.
Most Meta users globally will be impacted by the update, which also applies to Meta wearables, like its “expanding line of smart glasses,” which offer Meta AI a rich data source of voice recordings, images, and videos, MediaPost reported. Only regions with strict data laws—like the European Union, the United Kingdom, and South Korea—will be spared.
Meta insists AI is the future of Facebook, but not in EU
Notably, last year, Meta faced backlash in the EU, where it was accused of using “dark patterns” to discourage AI opt-outs. At that time, head of Facebook Tom Alison described “the future of Facebook” as being all about developing “the world’s best recommendation technology” and “building one of the world’s best collections of open models, tools, and resources for generative AI.” More recently, Mark Zuckerberg suggested that social media users would likely find AI content more engaging than their friends, then released a “Vibes” feed on the Meta AI app that critics slammed as a flood of “AI slop.”
With Meta’s announcement this week, it seems like the company is moving ahead with its AI mission in every market that allows it. At the same time, the EU’s Digital Service Act (DSA) has won EU users even more freedom to control their feeds on Meta apps.
On Thursday, Bits of Freedom—a Netherlands-based advocacy group specially focused on privacy and freedom of communication—announced that a judge ruled Meta must respect users’ choice to avoid invasive personalized feeds. Within two weeks, Meta must update its apps to allow EU users the choice of sticking with a chronological feed that is not based on profiling.
Bits of Freedom sued Meta under the DSA, reminding the court that “one of the core elements of the DSA is that users must have greater influence over the information they see.”
Ultimately, the judge agreed, ruling that Meta—which Bits of Freedom said used “subtle design tricks” to steer users to feeds “where it can show as many interest and behavior based ads as possible”—must promptly make changes to comply with the DSA.
Meta declined to comment on the ruling, while Bits of Freedom warned that areas with weak privacy laws could be facing threats to democracy as tech companies strive for greater control over what content shows up in social media feeds.
“For many people, and especially for young people, social media platforms are a major source of news and information,” Bits of Freedom said. “Therefore, it is crucial that users themselves can decide which content appears on their feed. Without that freedom of choice, participation in the public debate is seriously hampered.”
Maartje Knaap, a spokesperson for Bits of Freedom, said it’s “regrettable that we need to go to court to ensure Meta complies with the law,” noting that users especially need to control their feeds ahead of elections.
“It is absolutely unacceptable that a handful of American tech billionaires determine how we see the world,” Knaap said. “That concentration of power poses a risk to our democracy.”
In the US, where data privacy laws are less strict, advocates are similarly concerned about social media feeds coming under the control of a handful of billionaires—particularly after Donald Trump said he wants TikTok to be tweaked to be “100 percent MAGA” under US ownership. Last year, Meta came under fire for boosting AI posts that researchers linked to misinformation, NPR reported. And a future where AI distorts feeds and helps misinformation spread faster remains a concern, especially after Trump used his own social media platform, Truth Social, to post “a 35-second AI-generated video filled with crude insults, racial overtones, and bizarre conspiracy theories,” Ars noted earlier this week.
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