Google may use Gmail and Photos data for personalized ads – with one condition

What's going on

On October 16, 2026, Google updated its privacy policy. Android Authority spotted the change, and The Verge and Techlicious also reported on it. Until now, the policy essentially said that Google doesn't use content from Drive, Gmail and Google Photos for personalized ads. The new addition reads: "unless you choose to make data from these services available to other Google services that support personalized advertising."

So Google isn't saying it scans your emails and photos without asking in order to serve ads. The exception applies to people who deliberately link their data to certain services. But that link now has a consequence that wasn't explicitly spelled out in the rules before.

What Personal Intelligence is

"Personal Intelligence" is a feature that lets Gemini and Google Search (such as AI Mode) access your connected apps, including Gmail, Calendar, Drive and Google Photos. The goal is more personal answers instead of generic ones. One example from the sources: you ask about restaurants near your hotel. Search finds your booking in Gmail and suggests suitable places. According to Techlicious, the connection reaches beyond AI Mode: Discover, Maps, Shopping, Flights, Hotels, Translate and News can also access the content. For Gmail, Google also lists the "Smart features in other Google products" setting as a requirement.

What the new rule means in practice

The policy says Search may process some of the shared data to personalize content, "including advertising." Google stresses that ads aren't based "directly" on your inbox or photo library. But Search can draw on summaries, excerpts and inferences from these sources. It's a fine but important distinction: it's not the raw content, but information derived from it, that can feed into personalization.

Google's promises: - Advertisers don't see your Gmail, Drive or photo data. - Personal details such as your name or email address aren't passed to advertisers without your permission. - No personalized ads based on sensitive categories such as ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion or health.

AI training and human review

Techlicious cites further points from Google's disclosures. Search doesn't train its generative models directly on your inbox or on the images and audio in your photos, but it does train on summaries, excerpts, generated media and inferences derived from them. For short or especially relevant emails or files, the summary can be the entire email or file. In addition, some of the processed data may be reviewed by employees or external service providers to debug, secure and improve services. Google says reviewers normally don't see the underlying photos or videos, except in cases of abuse or when users submit feedback. Beforehand, interactions are disconnected from your account and personal information is reduced (except in abuse cases).

How to protect yourself

The sources describe this path: 1. Open your Google Account and select "Data & privacy." 2. Under "Personalization & activity," open the personalization settings. 3. Select "Manage personalized recommendations in Search services." 4. Under "Additional Personal Intelligence," open "Connected content apps" and disconnect Google Workspace and Google Photos.

Alternatively, you can turn off personalized recommendations entirely on the same page. Important: disconnecting doesn't delete data that has already been collected. Whatever sits in the Search services history can stay, even if you disconnect the app or delete the original email or photo. To remove it, you have to delete the activity separately via "My Activity." You can also switch off personalized ads in "My Ad Center," but according to Techlicious, that doesn't necessarily stop data from connected apps from being processed for AI personalization and model improvement.

Our take

Formally, the change is opt-in: if you don't link anything, nothing changes. The catch is that the benefit (better AI answers) and the use for advertising are coupled. If you want one, you may be opening the door to the other. Android Authority points out that it makes a difference whether data answers a question or helps decide which ads reach you. The sources leave open how strongly ads are actually influenced and exactly which services are affected. If you use Personal Intelligence, check your settings and your Search services history.