Google has updated its privacy policy, effective October 16, introducing a conditional clause regarding personalized advertising. The company now reserves the right to use data from Gmail, Drive, and Google Photos for ad targeting if users grant these services access to other Google tools.
This change is linked to the company's Personal Intelligence initiative, which allows AI features like Gemini and AI Mode in Search to process personal user data. While Google maintains that it does not scan private content for ads by default, connecting these services to AI tools now enables the use of that data for ad personalization.
The company stated that advertisers do not receive direct access to user content, and personally identifiable information remains protected. Users can disable these connections through the Data and privacy settings in their Google Account by managing Connected Content apps or turning off personalized recommendations.
Android Authority, which first identified the policy update, noted that previously collected data may remain in a user's search history even after disconnecting the services. This update follows other recent changes to Google's data handling practices, including the installation of on-device AI models in Chrome.
