this post was submitted on 24 Oct 2026
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Google quietly changes privacy policy so your Gmail and Photos could be used in targeted ads - Dexerto (www.dexerto.com)
submitted 5 days ago by spaghettiwestern@sh.itjust.works to c/technology@lemmy.world
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Google has updated its privacy policy to allow personal information from Gmail, Google Photos, and Drive to potentially be used for targeted advertising, raising new questions about how the company handles users’ private data.

The change, which took effect on October 16, introduces a significant exception to Google’s previous promise that it would not use content from these services to personalize advertisements.

As first spotted by Android Authority, the updated policy specifically affects users who connect their personal information to Google’s AI-powered services, including Search and Gemini.

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[–] kazerniel@quokk.au 10 points 4 days ago (2 children)

According to the article, it is off by default:

According to Google’s updated privacy policy, the company still promises not to use Gmail, Drive, or Google Photos content for targeted advertising by default.

However, the policy now includes an important exception. Google says that restriction no longer necessarily applies “unless you choose to make data from these services available to other Google services that support personalized ads.”

The change is connected to Google’s Personal Intelligence features, which allow services like Search and Gemini to access information from connected apps to provide more relevant recommendations.

For example, someone could give Google access to their Gmail inbox to help organize travel plans or find restaurant recommendations near a hotel reservation.

Under the updated policy, information shared for those personalized experiences could also be used to determine which advertisements appear.

[–] Jiral@lemmy.world 7 points 4 days ago

In the US you can hide that opt-in in unreadable terms, can't you? In the EU that will be harder though as there the opt-in has to be easily readable and obvious to the regular user, as well as feature an option to decline without making things non-functional that do not need that for their very functioning.

In any case, people will be surprised how inshittified AI will be able to become once they have done the same they have done to regular search.