Meta has recently rolled out a new radical ad approach. The tech giant intends to use information from user interactions with its artificial intelligence offerings to serve personalized advertisements on its online networking services. In addition, Meta recently announced that more than a billion people are already interacting with its AI every month. These people are engaging in extended, sophisticated dialogue with the technology.
The updated policy goes globally into effect for all users. The rule doesn’t apply to users in South Korea, the United Kingdom, and the European Union. These states and cities will be free to maintain their existing privacy safeguards. They’re addressing long-standing issues with data privacy and user consent in an ever-expanding digital world.
To accommodate this change, Meta intends to revise its privacy policy by December 16, 2023. The company has promised to alert users to the forthcoming changes over the next week. This ensures that all stakeholders are on the same page about how their data will be utilized in the advertising ecosystem.
The move to use AI chat data for targeted advertising is due to the wide, widespread adoption of Meta’s AI products. With an impressive user base exceeding one billion monthly interactions, the company aims to transform these conversations into a source of personalized advertising. This last maneuver is meant to increase engagement by users. It will make ads more relevant by serving ads with a higher degree of precision to what users are looking for.
Meta’s AI has quickly become almost ubiquitous among users, enabling deeply personal conversations across different cultures and languages. These interactions provide extremely important information about what users like and dislike. Advertisers will have the opportunity to use this targeting information to better target their campaigns. Meta says it wants to improve ad relevancy with this data. This strategy would help them increase click-through rates and raise their total advertising revenue.
While this seems like a win-win for advertisers everywhere, this policy shift poses deeper concerns about user data privacy and security. Civil liberties critics warn that collecting and using chat data for targeted advertising may violate users’ privacy rights. There’s nothing more disconcerting to users when they understand that their personal conversations are being mined for profit. This well-founded concern can fuel a counter-reaction against the company’s practices.
To address these criticisms, Meta has touted a focus on transparency and giving users more control over their personal data. “Our company is built on transparency. It will be much more clear up-front to users what data will be collected and how it will be used. Consumers must be able to set their privacy preferences with simple and intuitive controls. To further protect their privacy, users may choose to opt out of certain data collections and stop their activity from being used for targeted advertising.
The timing of this policy change by Meta reflects a broader trend among tech companies seeking to monetize their AI technologies. Competition in the digital advertising space has been increasing. Businesses are racing each other to come up with the most creative strategies to enhance their products and drive new revenues.