Google Updates Privacy Policy: Data Connected to AI Features May Be Used for Targeted Ads
Google added an exception to its privacy policy allowing data from Gmail, Drive, and Photos connected to AI personalization features to be used for targeted advertising.
U.S. technology company Google updated its privacy policy on October 16, 2026, adding a key exception clause. Under the new terms, if users choose to connect personal data from services like Gmail, Google Drive, or Google Photos to Google’s “Personal Intelligence” features to enhance AI search experiences, summaries and inferences derived from this data may be used to show them personalized ads. Previously, Google promised not to use content from these services for advertising purposes.
This change implies that users seeking more precise AI recommendations may need to trade off some privacy boundaries. Google states that advertisers do not get direct access to raw emails or photos, and ads will not be based on sensitive categories such as race, religion, sexual orientation, or health. However, when AI systems process user-authorized data, they generate summaries, excerpts, and inferences, which Search and other services may use to personalize content, including ads. For example, AI might scan emails and photos to summarize travel preferences, potentially influencing the types of ads shown on YouTube or other platforms.
For Google users wishing to avoid this scenario, they can disconnect linked content apps or disable “Personalized Recommendations” entirely via the “Search Services Personalization” page in their account settings. Note that disconnecting an app does not clear information already collected by Google and stored in “Search Services History”; users must separately delete corresponding activity records to remove this data completely.