Confirmed: Meta Brings ‘Less Personalized’ Ads to EU from Jan 2026

The new ‘Less Personalized’ ads will start appearing for EU Instagram and Facebook users from January 2026.

Image: Dima Solomin / Unsplash

After a fierce regulatory tussle between Meta and the European Union, the EU’s regulatory position has prevailed. The European Commission announced that starting next month, January 2026, Meta will display a new option for Facebook and Instagram users in the EU: “Less Personalized Ads.”

This significant update means that if you are located in the EU, you will finally be able to share a minimal amount of your personal data rather than granting complete access to your digital life.

In 2023, Meta introduced a controversial “Pay or Consent” model for Facebook and Instagram users. This binary system forced users to either consent to full data transfer to Meta or pay a monthly subscription for privacy.

However, Digital Markets Act (DMA) regulators argued against this, declaring it unfair that users should have to pay to protect their privacy. Following a heavy fine by the EU, Meta has conceded and is set to introduce a new option aside from the existing ones. Beginning in January 2026, users will no longer face a binary choice between "Consent to everything" or "Pay for a subscription."

A third option is arriving: Less Personalized Ads, allowing you to choose less personal data usage.

What Does “Less Personalized” Actually Mean?

However, "less personalized ads" doesn’t mean zero data. If a user selects this option, Meta will restrict the data used for ad targeting to a minimal set.

Now the question in your mind is: What data will still be gathered?

The “Less Personalized” Data Set includes:

• Contextual Data: What you are looking at right now (e.g., if you are watching a Reel about cooking, you might see an ad for cookware).
• Basic Demographics: Age, Gender, and rough Location.
• Ad Engagement: How you interact with ads in the current session.

Crucially, it explicitly excludes deep behavioral history, the years of data Meta has collected on your likes, comments, and cross-site browsing behavior.

The Hidden Cost: Unskippable Ad Breaks

The term "EU completely wins" might not be entirely correct in this context. As Meta has indicated, "less personalized" ads mean less valuable ads (and therefore less valuable to advertisers). Consequently, they may need to show more of them or show them in a more intrusive way to maintain revenue.

Therefore, reports indicate that the new “Less Personalized Ads” tier might introduce new unskippable ad breaks. While common now on YouTube, this will be a jarring new experience for you, especially during Reels.

If you think the "Less Personalized" option is just a productivity update by Meta, that’s not true. It is not a productivity update; it is truly a regulatory patch update.

In April 2025, the European Commission hit Meta with a €200 million fine (approx. $266 million) for breaching the DMA. The Commission ruled that Meta failed to provide a "less personalized" alternative that was equivalent to the core service. By introducing this third option, Meta hopes to satisfy the requirement that users must have a "free" alternative that doesn't require surrendering all their behavioral data. The company also recently introduced WhatsApp's new cross-app chats for EU users due to DMA rules.   

What This Means for Users

For the average user in the EU, January 2026 will bring yet another pop-up screen. You will likely face three choices:

1. Subscription: Pay a monthly fee for zero ads and zero data usage for ads.
2. Personalized Ads: Free access, but Meta uses your full history to show relevant ads.
3. Less Personalized Ads: Free access, but ads are based only on context/demographics, and you may encounter unskippable ad breaks.

The Privacy Paradox:

While privacy advocates cheer this as a win for user control, the practical reality is tricky. Many users may find that "less personalized" ads feel spammy or irrelevant. If you are a 30-year-old male interested in tech, seeing generic ads for random household products might feel like a degraded experience compared to seeing ads for the latest gadgets.

Strategic Advice: How to Prepare

For Marketers:

• Audit your EU audience sizes: Watch for significant drops in custom audience sizes in Q1 2026.
• Invest in Creative: Your creative assets need to do the heavy lifting of qualifying your audience since targeting will be broader.
• Diversify: Don't rely 100% on Meta's behavioral signals. Build your own email lists and first-party data.

For Users:

Check your settings: When the prompt arrives, read the fine print regarding "ad breaks." If you hate unskippable ads, the "Personalized" option might surprisingly be the lesser of two evils for your user experience.

Important Note: This update is solely for EU users; if you are outside the European region, it does not affect you. You will continue to see the same ad experience you are already facing. But for EU users, the algorithm seems to be changing completely.

Image: Dima Solomin on Unsplash