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Google privacy policy (16 Oct 2026): Gmail, Photos data can inform ads via Personal Intelligence

Google's policy no longer promises flatly that Gmail, Drive and Photos content is kept out of ad personalisation: connecting those apps to other Google services is now an exception. How to check and disconnect.

audiotale.net team

· 6 min read

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On this page
  1. Key points
  2. What to do
  3. What happened
  4. Background
  5. How it works
  6. What it means
  7. What we don't know yet
  8. What to watch next
  9. Sources

Google changed its privacy policy on 16 October 2026 so that its long-standing promise not to personalise ads from your Gmail, Drive and Google Photos content now carries an exception: it no longer applies if you choose to make that data available to other Google services that support personalised ads. The practical trigger is Personal Intelligence, the feature that lets Search and the Gemini app read connected apps. The policy change was spotted by Android Authority and reported on 23 October by The Verge and Ars Technica. Google says ads will not be based directly on your inbox or photo library.

Key points

  • The current Google Privacy Policy is dated "Effective October 16, 2026".
  • The old wording said Google does not show personalised ads based on content from Drive, Gmail or Google Photos; the new wording adds "unless you choose to make data from these services available to other Google services that support personalized ads."
  • The exception matters for people who connect Workspace apps and Google Photos to Search or Gemini through Personal Intelligence, which is opt-in.
  • Google's stated position: ads "will not be based directly on your Gmail inbox or Photos library," and sensitive information will not be used to tailor ads.
  • Per Android Authority, disconnecting the apps does not necessarily erase information already saved, for example in Search Services History.

What to do

If you do not want content from Gmail, Drive or Photos to be able to feed ad personalisation, check three places.

  1. Disconnect the apps. In your Google Account go to Data & privacy → Personalization & activity → Personalization settings → "Manage Personalized Recommendations in Search Services" → "Connected Content apps" (under Additional Personal Intelligence), and disconnect Google Workspace and Google Photos. Ars Technica says the Gemini app's own settings for Personal Intelligence also let you disable connected apps.
  2. Or turn off personalised recommendations entirely on the same Search Services personalisation page, which Android Authority lists as an alternative.
  3. Review your ad settings. Google's policy points to My Ad Center for controlling which information is used to show you ads.

Disconnecting stops future access; it is not a deletion. Android Authority notes that data already stored in Search Services History may remain even after you disconnect or delete the original email or photo, so review and delete that history too if it matters to you.

What happened

On 16 October Google updated the section of its privacy policy that covers ad personalisation. The policy page now reads "Effective October 16, 2026". Before the change, the passage said, in the words Ars Technica quotes, "We don't show you personalized ads based on your content from Drive, Gmail, or Photos." The version on Google's site today reads: "We don't show you personalized ads based on your content from Drive, Gmail, or Google Photos, unless you choose to make data from these services available to other Google services that support personalized ads." The next sentence still says Google does not share information that personally identifies you, such as your name or email, with advertisers unless you ask it to, and the policy still says it does not show personalised ads based on sensitive categories such as race, religion, sexual orientation or health.

A second passage was updated too. The policy now says you may allow certain Google services, including Search or the Gemini apps, to access data from other Google services such as Google Photos and Workspace apps like Gmail and Drive, to give you a more personalised experience, and that "Search may process some of the data that you allow Search to access to personalize content, including ads."

Android Authority spotted the change on 23 October; The Verge and Ars Technica followed the same day. Ars quotes Google's statement: "Connecting your apps is entirely opt-in. Ads will continue to be relevant to things like your query, the context of the response and your interests. Ads will not be based directly on your Gmail inbox or Photos library, and as always, sensitive information will not be used to tailor ads." A Google spokesperson also told Ars that the clarification does not indicate a change in how Google handles data with respect to its advertising partners, that it is not scanning your whole inbox to build your advertising profile and that it is not giving this data to third parties.

Background

Personal Intelligence arrived in early 2026, according to Ars Technica. It lets people hand data from several Google apps to Google's AI products so that answers draw on their own context. Android Authority's example: ask Search for restaurants near a hotel you booked, and with access to Gmail it can pull up the reservation details. Google's own policy gives a similar example, a hotel booking email used to suggest things to do nearby. The feature connects your data to the Gemini app and to features such as AI Mode in Search. Ars notes that the Gemini app does not currently show ads, while AI search tools can show sponsored content, which is where the policy language bites.

For years the promise about Gmail was among the simplest in Google's privacy story, and Ars calls the update an "equivocation" that "opens the door" to using such data when it is shared with other Google services. That is Ars's reading; Google says the exception is a clarification of how an opt-in feature works.

How it works

The policy does not describe a mechanism in detail, so the following is what the sources establish and no more:

  • Gmail, Drive and Photos content is not used for ad personalisation by default (Android Authority).
  • If you connect those apps to eligible services via Personal Intelligence, the services can use information from them to answer you, and the policy now allows that information to take part in ad personalisation on services that support it (The Verge, Ars Technica).
  • Google says the resulting ads are based on things like your query, the context of the response and your interests, not directly on your inbox or library.
  • Advertisers do not get your Drive, Gmail or Photos information or identifying details such as your name or email address (The Verge, summarising the policy).

What it means

For people who never connected their apps, nothing changes: the default still keeps the content out of ad personalisation. For people who did connect them, the line between "helping answer my question" and "informing the ads I see" is now explicit in the policy rather than implicit in the product. Ars points out that Personal Intelligence is opt-in but that Google uses prompts and pop-ups to encourage turning it on, so some users may have enabled it without registering the consequences; that is Ars's assessment, not something Google has confirmed. For privacy and compliance teams that allow Workspace accounts on Google's AI features, the question to put to Google is whether a managed Workspace account is covered by the same wording; none of the sources we read addresses that.

For developers building products on personal data, the case is a reminder of how a data-sharing grant can drift: consent given for one purpose (better answers) may be written into a policy as permission for another (ad relevance), so purpose limits are worth stating exactly.

What we don't know yet

  • How much data actually reaches ad systems. Google says ads are not "based directly" on Gmail or Photos content, but has not published how summaries or insights from connected apps are used in ad selection.
  • Whether paid Workspace accounts are covered. The sources we read discuss consumer accounts only.
  • Regional differences. None of the three articles says whether the same wording applies in the EU, UK or elsewhere.
  • Retention. Android Authority says data may persist in Search Services History after disconnecting; we have not seen Google state a retention period.

What to watch next

Watch for a Google help-centre page that spells out which signals from connected apps can be used for ads, any statement from European or UK data-protection regulators, and whether Google adds a separate switch for ads within Personal Intelligence.

Sources

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