Removing the ability to opt-out of ad personalization based on your Reddit activity, except in select countries.
Reddit requires very little personal information, and we like it that way. Our advertisers instead rely on on-platform activity—what communities you join, leave, upvotes, downvotes, and other signals—to get an idea of what you might be interested in.
The vast majority of redditors will see no change to their ads on Reddit. For users who previously opted out of personalization based on Reddit activity, this change will not result in seeing more ads or sharing on-platform activity with advertisers. It does enable our models to better predict which ad may be most relevant to you.
edit: updated link to old.reddit.com
Targeted ads has become such a boogey man, that you all can no longer view these things rationally. There is nothing wrong with companies wanted to get their products advertized to the most likely customers and there is nothing inherently wrong with a platform using your activity to see what ads you are most likely interested in.
The potential issue with it, is your personal data leaking everywhere and being assimilated by questionable companies who could create a psychological profile of you, that knows you better than you know yourself.
If they truely only let companies target you, by presenting them an internally grouped collective of likely customers in which you happen to be included, then there is absolutely nothing wrong with this. Same goes for the newest change in how chrome manages ads.