Google may use Gmail and Google Photos data to personalize ads

What happened

Google updated its privacy policy to allow data from Drive, Gmail, and Google Photos to inform personalized ads when users make that data available to other Google services that support them. The October 16th change may affect users who connect those apps to Search through Personal Intelligence. Users can disconnect apps or disable Personalized Recommendations in Search Services Personalization settings.

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The story so far

Google updated its privacy policy to allow data from Gmail, Drive and Google Photos to inform personalized ads when users make that data available to other Google services that support personalized advertising. The change could affect users who connect those apps to Search through its Personal Intelligence features. The Verge reported that advertisers do not receive users’ Gmail, Drive or Photos information or identifying details such as names and email addresses, and that Google does not target ads based on sensitive categories such as race, sexual orientation, religion or health. Users can prevent the connected data from informing targeted ads by disconnecting apps from Search’s Personal Intelligence features or turning off Personalized Recommendations in Search Services Personalization settings.