Meta uses third-party data to customize your feed and IA: what about your privacy?

Meta announced that it will start using the information that companies share with it - data on purchases, games or interactions outside their platforms - not only to customize ads, but also to adjust what you see in your Feed and the responses of your artificial intelligence chatbot. According to the company itself, it is not a question of collecting new data but of giving them a different use, and the measure will be implemented "in several countries" from next month, including the US and nations such as the United Kingdom, Brazil and South Korea.

Behind the announcement is a clear technical and commercial reality: many companies refer to Meta behavioural signals using tools such as pixels, conversion APIs or customer lists to make advertising more efficient. Review those same flows to customize content and IA responses amplifies the scope of the profiling, because now the information that usually only fed ad models will also enter the systems that decide what content to recommend or what response a virtual assistant will give.

The implications are not only privacy, but also security and transparency. From the privacy point of view, the combination of off-platform signals with activity within Meta facilitates the creation of more complete and persistent profiles that increase the risk of unwanted identification and segmentation. From security, these shared datasets between companies and a centralized platform can become abuse vectors if they are not properly protected: customer list leaks, supplanting, or more targeted manipulation campaigns. In addition, the use of other data to feed recommendations can reinforce information bubbles and bias in algorithms with effects on the diversity of information that each person receives.

Meta says it will make available extended controls, renaming and concentrating options such as the old "Activity information from ad partners" in a new configuration called "Activity of other companies," and that the option "Your activity outside of Meta technologies" will cease to exist. This sounds like simplification, but it should be read with caution: the existence of a control does not guarantee that its text, location or default value will favour an informed choice. In regulatory contexts - such as the European data protection framework or state privacy laws - transparency on purposes and legal bases will be key; bodies such as ICO publish guidelines on acceptable treatment practices that users and companies should consult.

What a user can do about his privacy: first, review today's Meta options for activity off your platforms and ad preferences. If you prefer to limit this type of customization, deny the use of data from other companies for custom content and ads, and delete or disconnect any integration you do not need in each service where you bought or registered. Second, it reduces the trail you leave using tracker blockers, browsers with cross-site tracking prevention and more restrictive cookies settings in your browser or device. Finally, it considers asking the shops with which you interact not to share your data with third parties or to anonymity them; for small and large companies the practice of sharing customer lists is common and often optional for the consumer.

Companies also have tasks: to audit what data they share with ad tech platforms, to minimize what is transferred by properly implemented pseudonymization or hashing techniques, and to document the legal basis for each transfer. From a cybersecurity perspective, it is recommended to encrypt channels, apply strict access controls and monitor flows to detect exfiltrations or undue uses. And from a regulatory point of view, organizations should prepare clear justifications for why and how they reuse data to customize not only ads but also automated content and responses.

If you want to review the options related to the activity outside of Meta and how it is used for ads and content, see the Meta official help center and materials on privacy of independent bodies; for example, the Meta help page offers the activity management guides, and regulators such as the ICO explain rights and good practices in Europe. Target Help Center on off-Facebook Activity and Office of the Information Commissioner (ICO) website are good starting points; for practical tools of privacy and tracing, the Electronic Frontier Foundation maintains useful guides in EFF.

In short, the news is not just a technical product modification: it is a change in how commercial signals are reused to mold digital experiences. The solution is not to be blindly confident that an adjustment neutralizes the problem, but to be informed, to adjust options and to require companies and regulators to increase transparency and technical guarantees.