Activity from – Meta says it’s broadening how it uses activity shared by other businesses to personalize what people see on Facebook and Instagram—including ad targeting and AI responses—while insisting it is not collecting new data and that global rollout will exclude parts
A Meta blog post landed on Tuesday with a familiar-sounding promise—more personalization—but it arrived with a sharper edge: the company is extending the reach of off-platform activity into what you see on Facebook and Instagram, and even into how its AI assistant responds.
Meta says it already uses off-platform activity shared with the company by other businesses—like the games you play or the purchases you make on other websites—to serve you ads. Now it’s expanding the scope of how that information can shape the content you receive across its platforms. including feed recommendations and AI responses.
The example Meta gives is simple and immediate. If you bought a tent online recently, you might start seeing camping-related videos in your Reels feed.
In the same blog post, Meta emphasizes it isn’t trying to widen the data pipeline. “We aren’t collecting any new data as part of this update,” the post says. “This is about using information that businesses already send to us to further improve your experience.”
Meta spokesperson Emil Vazquez also explained the change in terms of what it used to do. Previously. the company only used this activity across its own apps—tailoring content you see based on actions such as likes. views. and follows. Meta also began using conversations with its AI assistant to personalize ads last year.
As part of the update, Meta is combining the controls that determine the company’s access to off-platform data. If you don’t want Meta using data shared by other businesses to personalize ads, your feeds, or AI responses, you’ll need to turn off the “Activity from other businesses” setting.
The rollout is described as global, but it won’t be uniform at launch. Meta says it will exclude some locations, including the European region, the UK, Brazil, Thailand, South Africa, Turkey, South Korea, Ecuador, Nigeria, and Kenya.
Meta Facebook Instagram personalization off-platform activity Activity from other businesses Reels AI assistant ads data controls
So they’re basically listening to everything you do online again? Cool.
I swear the ads get weirder. Like I buy one thing and suddenly my whole feed is like “welcome to tent town” lol. They keep saying it’s not new data but it feels new.
Wait so if you turn off that “Activity from other businesses” thing, does it also stop the AI answers? Cuz I feel like the AI already knows too much anyway, like it’s predicting my searches or whatever.
Meta always says “not collecting new data” but then expands what they do with it. Excluding Europe and UK and all those places… so it’s only gonna be bad for the rest of us? Also this about Reels and ads, but it sounds like they’re using it to influence everything you see, even random comments and recommendations. I don’t even know where to find that setting half the time.