• by Colin Kirkland , September 28, 2023

While the updated ad policy will exempt users “in select [unspecified] countries,” according to Reddit's head of privacy Jutta Williams, advertisers will now be able to target users based on the communities they join and leave, upvotes and downvotes they award, “and other signals.”

“The aim is to simplify our privacy descriptions, improve ad performance, and offer new controls for the types of ads you prefer not to see,” Williams explained in relation to other changes included in the update. Users will now be able to limit certain types of ads from appearing while they spend time on the app.

For example, the platform is featuring new opt-out controls run by a combination of machine-learning and manual tagging for “sensitive advertising categories” like Alcohol, Dating, Gambling, Pregnancy & Parenting, and Weight Loss.

“The vast majority of redditors will see no change to their ads,” Williams' post reads. Nor will it change the way Reddit collects its data.

“This data informs how we target ads on our platform. We do not share your information or activity with third parties for advertising outside Reddit,” Williams went on to explain.

Exempted users are likely to be people living in European countries due to the EU's GDPR rules, a landmark data-privacy law that require companies to ask permission to collect or process personal data for advertising use. Reddit still hasn’t made known which users will be excluded from the changes.

The platform’s advertising settings will roll out over the next few weeks.