OpenAI enabled marketing cookies by default for free ChatGPT users starting this week.
The company's updated privacy policy now automatically enrolls free users in its marketing cookie program. These cookies track users across third-party websites, building profiles for ad targeting and identifying prospects for ChatGPT Plus subscriptions. Users can manually opt out through their account settings, but the default is now opt-in rather than opt-out.
This represents a departure from the consent-heavy approach most tech platforms adopted after GDPR and similar privacy regulations required explicit user permission before deploying marketing trackers. OpenAI, which has historically positioned itself as more privacy-conscious than traditional ad-tech companies, is now leaning into the same tracking infrastructure it once seemed to reject.
The timing is notable. OpenAI reportedly needs to generate more revenue from its massive user base, and free users have always been a cost center. Turning on tracking by default gives the company a way to monetize non-paying users through targeted advertising—a playbook Silicon Valley knows well, even if it rarely says so out loud.
Whether users will find and change the opt-out setting is another question entirely. Most don't.