Quietly, in the way that privacy changes usually arrive, Google has rewritten the language around some of the most intimate spaces people keep online: their email, their files, and their photographs. Under an updated policy, users who choose to connect these services can let Search and Gemini draw on that material to shape more personal answers, and that personalisation can extend to advertising. The company insists the boundaries hold, with no content or identifying details passed to advertisers and no ads built on categories such as religion, health, or sexual orientation. Whether those assu
Google's Updated Privacy Policy Lets Gmail, Drive and Photos Data Shape Personalised Results and Ads
Google says advertisers don't get your Gmail, Drive or Photos content
Mark
So what actually changed on 16 October?
Mimi
Google updated its privacy policy to spell out that Search and Gemini can use data from Gmail, Drive and Photos if the user allows it, and that this can include personalising ads.
Mark
Is Google reading my email to sell me things?
Mimi
Google says no to the standard version of that. It says it does not pull data directly from those apps for ordinary advertising. The link runs through Personal Intelligence.
Luke
Careful there. That is Google's own description. The reporting quotes the policy and the company's clarifications, but nothing independent tests how the data flows in practice.
Mark
What does the policy language say about ads?
Mimi
That Search may process some of the data you allow it to access to personalise content, including ads, depending on your settings.
Luke
And "may" and "depending on your settings" do a lot of work. The source doesn't say how many users have the feature on, or exactly which signals shape which ads.
Mark
What protections does Google promise?
Mimi
Advertisers don't get Gmail, Drive or Photos content, or names and email addresses. And no ads based on race, sexual orientation, religion or health.
Luke
Those are promises from the company. Nothing here says how they are enforced or audited.
Mark
And if someone wants out?
Mimi
Disconnect the apps in the Search Services Personalisation settings page.
Il Polso
- A policy update quietly reaches into Gmail, Drive, and Photos, the places people keep their most private material.
- Headlines have seized on the possibility that personal messages and pictures could feed targeted advertising.
- Google is drawing a careful line, insisting advertisers receive no content, no names, and no sensitive-category targeting.
- The feature remains optional, so users can disconnect apps through Search's Personalisation settings and stop the sharing.
Quietly, in the way that privacy changes usually arrive, Google has rewritten the language around some of the most intimate spaces people keep online: their email, their files, and their photographs. Under an updated policy, users who choose to connect these services can let Search and Gemini draw on that material to shape more personal answers, and that personalisation can extend to advertising. The company insists the boundaries hold, with no content or identifying details passed to advertisers and no ads built on categories such as religion, health, or sexual orientation. Whether those assurances feel sufficient will depend on how much a person is willing to trade convenience for a closer view of their own life being read by a machine.
On Friday, 16 October, Google published an update to its privacy policy that spells out how information from three of its most personal products, Gmail, Google Drive and Google Photos, can be used. The company says it does not pull that data directly for standard advertising, but it does use it to power Personal Intelligence, an optional feature that lets Gemini and Google Search tailor answers to the person asking.
The unease comes from one sentence. Google writes that Search may process data a user allows it to access in order to personalise content, including ads, based on interests, activity, or personalised content from Google services. That is what has prompted headlines suggesting personal email and photos could feed targeted advertising.
Google has set limits. Advertisers do not receive the contents of Drive, Gmail or Photos, nor personal identifiers such as names or email addresses, and ads will not be built on sensitive categories including race, religion, sexual orientation or health.
For anyone who wants none of this, the remedy is simple and reversible. Opening the Search Services Personalisation settings page and disconnecting the apps stops personal data from shaping targeted ads. The practical step is to check which apps are connected, because the choice remains in the user's hands.
On Friday, 16 October, Google published an update to its privacy policy that spells out how information from some of its most personal products can be used. The products are Gmail, Google Drive and Google Photos. The short version is that Google says it does not pull data directly from them for standard advertising, but it does use them to power a feature called Personal Intelligence, and that feature can touch ads.
Personal Intelligence was introduced earlier this year as a way to make Google's AI services more useful. It is optional. A user who turns it on lets Gemini and Google Search draw on connected apps, such as Gmail and Google Photos, so that answers are tailored to that person rather than generic.
The policy language, effective 16 October, says users may choose to let certain Google services, including Search or the Gemini apps, access data from other Google services they use. It names Google Photos and Workspace apps like Gmail and Drive, and says the purpose is a more personalised experience, subject to the policies and settings of the service doing the accessing.
The ad connection comes in the next passage. Google writes that Search may process some of the data a user allows it to access in order to personalise content, including ads. It adds that, depending on a user's settings, it may show personalised ads based on interests, activity, or personalised content from Google services. That is the sentence behind the headlines suggesting Gmail and Photos could feed targeted advertising.
Google has attached limits to this. The company says advertisers do not get access to the contents of Drive, Gmail or Photos, and they do not receive personally identifying details such as a name or email address. It also says it will not show ads based on sensitive categories, including race, sexual orientation, religion or health.
The distinction Google draws is narrow but real: the data is not handed to advertisers, and it is not used directly for standard ad targeting, but information a user has allowed Search to see can shape personalised content, and ads are included in that.
For users who want none of it, the route is a settings change. Disconnecting the apps from Search's Personal Intelligence features, through the Search Services Personalisation settings page, stops personal data from being used to serve targeted ads.
The practical step is to open that page and check which apps are connected, since the feature depends on the user's choice and can be reversed.
Citazioni salienti
Search may process some of the data that you allow Search to access to personalise content, including ads.— Google privacy policy update, effective 16 October
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