Meta announced that it will begin using activity data shared by other businesses, purchases, games played, browsing behaviour, to personalise content across its apps beyond advertising. The data, which Meta already collects through its tracking pixel and business partnerships, will now influence what appears in your Feed and what its AI assistant tells you.
The company is simultaneously removing the "Your activity off Meta technologies" setting, which let users disconnect that business-shared data from their account entirely.
Read those two announcements together. Meta is expanding the use of off-platform data while eliminating the most granular control users had over it.
What is changing
Meta says it already receives data from businesses about user activity on other websites and apps. Until now, that data was used for ad targeting. From next month, it will also shape non-advertising content: what posts surface in your Feed, what Reels are recommended, and how Meta's AI assistant responds to you.
The company says no new data is being collected. The change is about how existing data is used. That framing is technically accurate and practically misleading, because expanding the application of data that users thought was limited to ads is a material change in how their information is handled.
The control swap
The old setting, "Your activity off Meta technologies," let users disconnect business-shared data from their account entirely. That control is being removed.
In its place, Meta is expanding the "Activity from other businesses" setting, which lets users toggle whether off-platform data is used for both ads and non-ad content. The toggle is all-or-nothing: allow the data for everything, or block it for everything.
Users who previously disconnected off-platform data from their account will need to find and adjust the new setting or the data will be applied to their Feed and AI responses by default.
The 3.5 billion person question
Meta personalises experiences for 3.5 billion people. The majority will never find the new setting, never realise the old one was removed, and never know that what they bought on an external website is now shaping what they see in their Instagram Feed.
The changes take effect next month in the US and other countries, with additional markets following later. Meta pointed users to its Help Centre for details, which is where privacy changes go to avoid scrutiny.
The pattern
This follows a consistent Meta approach: expand data usage, simplify controls in a way that reduces user agency, and frame it as an improvement. Fewer settings means less confusion. Less confusion means fewer people opting out. Fewer people opting out means more data flowing into more products.
The announcement does not use the word "privacy" once. That, at least, is honest.
