Google has revised its privacy policy to allow information from Gmail, Google Drive and Google Photos to help personalize advertisements when users connect those services to the company’s AI tools. The change took effect on Oct. 16 and creates a new exception to Google’s long-standing pledge concerning advertising based on content from those applications.
What changed in Google’s policy
The updated wording says Google does not show personalized ads based on content from Gmail, Drive or Photos “unless you choose to make data from these services available to other Google services that support personalized ads.”
According to Decrypt, the change was first noticed by Android Authority. It applies when users choose to link data from the three services with Google features that can use personal information to provide more tailored results.
Google says the data is not used for ad targeting by default. Advertisers also cannot see the underlying contents of a user’s emails, files or photographs, and Google says it will not share personally identifying information without permission.
The practical effect is that connecting these services to certain AI features can involve a trade-off: users may receive more personalized assistance, while the connected information may also influence the advertisements they are shown.
How Personal Intelligence is involved
The exception is tied to Google’s Personal Intelligence features. These allow tools such as AI Mode in Search and Gemini to draw on connected applications and provide answers based on a user’s own information.
For example, an AI tool could locate a hotel reservation stored in an email. Under the revised policy, data made available through that connection may also be used by Google services that support personalized advertising.
Users who do not want this arrangement can disconnect Gmail, Drive or Photos through the “Connected Content apps” settings in their Google Account’s Data & privacy section. They can also turn off personalized recommendations. Android Authority noted, however, that information collected previously may remain in a user’s Search history even after an app is disconnected.
The policy does not say that Google will broadly scan private emails or photographs and provide their contents to advertisers. Rather, the change concerns data that users choose to connect to other Google services supporting personalized ads.
Why the update matters
The revision comes as Google expands the use of artificial intelligence across its products. Personal Intelligence is designed to make AI features more useful by allowing them to work with information held in a user’s connected apps. The policy update clarifies that this convenience can have implications for advertising personalization.
The move follows other scrutiny of Google’s handling of data as it embeds AI into its services. Decrypt previously reported in May that Chrome began silently installing a multi-gigabyte on-device AI model on users’ computers, while Google separately removed a privacy claim linked to its Gemini Nano model.
Current market picture
Moneyiar market data at 22:38-22:39 on Oct. 25, 2026, showed mixed performance among the tracked digital assets:
- Polygon (prev. MATIC), now listed as POL, was priced at $0.0898082186, up 0.39% over 24 hours but down 0.74% over seven days.
- Telcoin (TEL) was at $0.0014157918, down 0.97% over 24 hours and 7.28% over seven days.
- edgeX (EDGE) stood at $0.3244313833, rising 0.81% in 24 hours and 13.63% over seven days.
