Meta just announced it will start using your conversations with its AI assistant to target ads across Facebook and Instagram. Starting December 16, every question you ask Meta AI - from vacation planning to cooking tips - becomes data for its billion-dollar advertising machine. The policy change affects over 1 billion monthly users and can't be opted out of.
Meta just dropped a privacy bombshell that'll reshape how 3 billion people experience social media. The company announced Wednesday that starting December 16, every conversation you have with Meta AI will fuel its advertising algorithm across Facebook, Instagram, and other platforms.
The timing isn't coincidental. Meta spent this summer on what executives called a "major AI hiring and spending blitz," warning investors in July that AI initiatives will drive expense growth well into 2026. Now the company's found its monetization strategy - your private AI chats.
"While this is a natural progression of our personalization efforts and will help give us even better recommendations for people, we want to be super transparent about it," Meta privacy manager Christy Harris told reporters during a media briefing. The admission reveals how the company views user privacy as a "progression" toward better ad targeting.
Here's how invasive it gets: Ask Meta AI about planning a family vacation, and suddenly your Facebook Reels will flood with travel destinations and hotel ads. Chat about cooking recipes, and restaurant promotions follow you across Instagram. Even voice interactions through Meta's Ray-Ban smart glasses feed the recommendation engine.
"Whether you're using your keyboard to type your interactions or you are using the audio version of an interaction, those signals will still be used," Harris confirmed, eliminating any hope that spoken queries stay private.
The policy change affects Meta AI's staggering user base. Mark Zuckerberg revealed in May that the digital assistant hit 1 billion monthly active users, though that figure includes users across Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger where Meta AI is bundled.
Zuckerberg had telegraphed this move months ago, telling investors there would eventually be "opportunities to either insert paid recommendations" or offer "a subscription service so that people can pay to use more compute." The December update delivers on that promise.
