OpenAI updated its privacy policy in late April 2026 to allow the use of cookies to track free ChatGPT users and target them with ads for OpenAI products on third-party websites and apps — with those marketing settings switched on by default.
The company notified US users via email on April 30, stating: “We’ll now use cookies to promote OpenAI products and services on other websites.” Testing by WIRED confirmed that two free ChatGPT accounts had marketing settings enabled by default, while one Plus account and one Enterprise account did not.
The updated policy expands the “Disclosure of Personal Data” section to include “marketing partners” alongside vendors and service providers. OpenAI says it may share limited identifiers — such as cookie IDs, device IDs, or email addresses — with advertising platforms to measure whether users take actions like signing up for a product after seeing an ad for it on a platform such as Instagram. Conversation data is not shared with these partners.
OpenAI spokesperson Taya Christianson said the policy update was a clarification of existing practice: “Like many companies, OpenAI works with select marketing partners to help people learn about our products on third-party websites and apps.” She added that users can opt out at any time through Settings > Data Controls > Marketing Privacy in the ChatGPT app.
The move comes as OpenAI works to convert free users into paying subscribers. The company began rolling out ads at the bottom of ChatGPT outputs in February 2026 for US users. Competitors including Google are also exploring advertising within generative AI tools.
WIRED also noted that a sentence assuring users their “sensitive Personal Data” would not be used to infer consumer characteristics was briefly missing from the updated policy. OpenAI said its removal was an error and restored similar language in a different paragraph.
Source: WIRED