OpenAI will switch on ChatGPT ads across Europe later this month and plans to ask users for consent to personalize them, rather than leaning on the legitimate interest argument other ad platforms use to skip that step, per an EU privacy policy it published on August 14. Free and Go accounts that agree can be targeted on their ad history and interests, along with what advertisers report people bought after clicking, and the switches for it live in account settings. Saying no doesn’t remove the ads, and holdouts get contextual placements keyed to whatever the chat is about plus an approximate location, with history and memory kept out. None of this reaches paid plans, which Clara Westbrook of Arbor Law said could push people onto a subscription just to keep their data out of it.
