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Google Privacy Policy Update Allows Gmail and Photos Data for Ads

Updated 4:14 PM ET · 5:21 PM ETConfirmed

Technology Desk

In Short: Google's privacy policy update, effective October 16, 2026, now allows personalized ads based on data from Gmail, Drive, and Photos, provided users opt into Personal Intelligence.

Google has updated its privacy policy to allow personalized ads based on data from Gmail, Drive, and Photos, effective October 16, 2026. Previously, the policy specifically stated that personalized ads were not based on content from these services, but this has changed.

The new policy clarifies that while advertisers won’t see personally identifying details like names or email addresses, ads can be personalized based on data shared between Google services when users opt into Personal Intelligence.

To manage personalized recommendations, users can go to Data & Privacy under their My Account page, select Personalization settings, and manage Personalized Recommendations in Search services.

Google spokespersons maintain that connecting apps is entirely opt-in and that ads will not be based directly on Gmail inboxes or Photos libraries. However, ads can be relevant to a user's interests and activity derived from connected services.

The update introduces an exception allowing data from Gmail, Google Drive, and Google Photos to inform personalized advertising when users choose to make that information available to other Google services that support ads.

Ars Technica notes that the change opens the door to using data from apps like Gmail and Photos in ads when it’s shared with other Google services, particularly through Personal Intelligence.

Personal Intelligence, which began rolling out in beta at the start of 2026, allows Gemini to share data between various apps, including Gmail, Photos, Search, Drive, and more, to provide a more personalized experience.

Google’s policy update retains protections against using sensitive information to tailor ads, such as race, sexual orientation, religion, or health. However, the update does not explicitly prohibit ads based on connected content.

The policy change does not mean Google will automatically scan every Gmail message or photograph to build advertising profiles. Users must opt into Personal Intelligence for their data to be used in this way.

Google’s privacy policy archive shows earlier versions with date ranges ending in October 2026, suggesting the October 16 text replaced a version in force since October 1.

The updated policy clarifies that ads will continue to be relevant to things like a user’s query, the context of the response, and their interests, but not directly based on their Gmail inbox or Photos library.

Google’s new privacy policy update, which went into effect one week ago, adds new language surrounding how the company uses data from Gmail, Drive, and Photos to target ads.

What this adds

Background

What's confirmed

• Previously, the policy specifically stated that personalized ads were not “based on your content from Drive, Gmail, or Photos,” but following this change, the sentence no longer stops there.
• For example, Search may process some of the data that you allow Search to access to personalize content, including ads.
• As spotted by Android Authority (via The Verge ), Google’s new privacy policy update — which went into effect one week ago on October 16th — adds new language surrounding how the company uses data from Gmail, Drive, and Photos to target ads.
• Google makes an exception to its privacy policy that could affect the ads you see.
• The policy states, “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”.
• You may choose to allow certain Google services, including services like Search or Gemini Apps, to access data from other Google services you use, such as Google Photos and Workspace apps like Gmail and Drive, in order to provide you with a more personalized experience, subject to the policies and settings of the accessing service.
• Turning off personalized recommendations has to do with targeted ads?
• A privacy policy update effective October 16, 2026, introduces an exception allowing data from Gmail, Google Drive and Google Photos to inform personalized advertising when users choose to make that information available to other Google services that support ads.
• News of the policy update was first reported by Android Authority.
• It also said ads based on sensitive categories, including race, sexual orientation, religion and health, would not be shown.
• Google has updated its privacy policy to clarify that users who have opted into its personalised AI features, will see targeted ads based on their personal data.
• The updated version retains that protection but adds an exception for users who choose to make data from these services available to other Google products that support personalized advertising.

What's still developing

• A line-by-line comparison of the October 16 text against the 54 earlier versions in Google's privacy policy archive, which runs back to June 9, 1999, shows that the new wording rewrites three sentences in the policy's advertising section and adds a new explanatory note.
• New Mexico's lawsuit argued that Facebook generally misled consumers about its data privacy practices, as well as its efforts to moderate misinformation and hate speech.
• The case stemmed from the 2018 Cambridge Analytica scandal, in which the U.K.-based data firm employed by Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign exploited Facebook features to harvest and misappropriate the personal data of more than 50 million users.
• Civic Information, Emerging Technologies, Information Distribution, Policy & Impact By: Kyla Fullenwider, Shorenstein Center Entrepreneurship Fellow Greg Fischer, Mayor of Louisville, Kentucky Our democratic institutions have never been more important or more vulnerable, and the United States Census is no exception.
• A New Mexico state judge has ordered Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, to pay a record $25 billion fine following a trial that determined the tech giant systematically lied to the public regarding its user data practices.
• While the statutory calculation based on over 40 million violations of state law totaled $219 billion, the court reduced the final penalty to $25 billion, an amount roughly equal to Meta’s quarterly profits.
• New Mexico state prosecutors successfully argued that the state’s entire population of roughly two million people was impacted by Meta’s deceptive assurances that private data was never shared with third parties.
• The Bank of Japan (BoJ) raised its short-term interest-rate target to 1.25% from 1.00% in a 7-2 vote, marking another step in the normalisation of monetary policy and widely matching what everyone has been expecting for weeks.
• Rising energy costs have intensified inflation concerns, placing greater pressure on the Fed to tighten monetary policy.
• A judge in New Mexico ordered Meta Platforms to pay $25 billion on Wednesday after a jury found the company had misled consumers in a case arising from allegations that a political consulting firm involved in Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign obtained data from ‌millions of Facebook users without their consent.
• New Mexico's attorney general had sued Meta in 2021 following revelations that Cambridge Analytica had harvested personal data from as many as 87 million Facebook users through a third-party app.
• State law allows a penalty of up to $5,000 per violation, and directs that all of the money go to New Mexico's school system, Torrez told reporters after the verdict.

Sources

• 9to5Googlelink
• Analytics Insightlink
• Ars Technicalink
• Business Upturnlink
• Decryptlink
• DigitBinlink
• International Business Times, Singapore Editionlink
• Madhyamamlink
• Notebookchecklink
• PPC Landlink
• Reclaim The Netlink
• Sammygurulink
• The Indian Expresslink
• The Vergelink
• innovation-village.comlink
• shattered.iolink
• AI&Other-Tech — video link