Google’s Updated Privacy Policy Opens the Door to Using Gmail Data for Ads

What happened

Google updated its privacy policy on October 16, removing language that explicitly said it would not show personalized ads based on content from Drive, Gmail, or Photos. The revised wording appears to allow data from those apps to inform ads when shared with other Google services. Google’s Personal Intelligence, released in early 2026, lets users share data from multiple apps with Google AI products.

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Reported by 2 sources

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. Ars Technica reported that the revision removed language explicitly barring personalized ads based on content from those apps. The change could affect users who connect them to Search through Personal Intelligence, which lets users share app data with Google AI products. 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.