OpenAI Adds Marketing Cookies for Free ChatGPT Users
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- OpenAI will share limited identifiers such as cookie IDs and email addresses with marketing partners to track ad effectiveness, as outlined in its April 30 privacy policy update.
- Free accounts have marketing tracking enabled by default, according to WIRED’s test of two free accounts, while paid Plus and Enterprise accounts have the setting off.
- OpenAI began showing ads at the bottom of ChatGPT responses for U.S. users in February, expanding its internal ad network.
- Google is simultaneously rolling out Gemini AI features across Chrome and other products, intensifying competition in AI‑driven advertising.
- Prism engineers—10 of them—are being reassigned to the Codex team, reflecting OpenAI’s focus on monetizable developer tools.
Why it matters: OpenAI gains a new revenue stream by monetizing free users, while free users lose privacy as their browsing data is tracked for ads. This boosts ad sales and triggers user backlash and regulatory scrutiny.
