Meta quietly tells users their Messenger chats can be fed to its AI

Meta has begun notifying Messenger users through a quiet in-app notice that anyone in a chat can now share its messages and photos with Meta AI, and that shared content may be used to improve the AI. There was no blog post or formal announcement, just a few lines at the top of the app.

The change sits uneasily beside Meta's previous statements that it trains its AI on publicly shared content, and it raises an uncomfortable question: whether fragments of private conversations could surface when someone else prompts Meta AI. Privacy advocates note the company is fighting to stay at the front of the global AI race, and training data is the fuel.

For users who rely on Messenger for family, client, and community communication, there is no opt-out; the practical advice is simply to be more deliberate about what gets said and shared in private threads.

In related Meta news, Social Media Marketing World 2025 runs March 30 through April 1 at the San Diego Convention Center with a dedicated AI track for the first time, and Instagram is preparing an option to rearrange profile grid posts, though marketers note most content is still consumed in the feed.