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Google says Gmail and Photos data can shape ads when AI features are on

Google says Gmail and Photos data can shape ads when AI features are on

AIAI-assisted
Google has updated its privacy policy with an exception that allows information from Gmail, Drive and Photos to help target ads when its Personal Intelligence AI features are connected. The revision took effect in mid-October and was reported this week.
Read the full story on The Verge
Details

What Google changed

Google's privacy policy long promised that content in Gmail, Drive and Google Photos would not be used to personalize advertising. The updated wording adds an exception: when that content is connected to Personal Intelligence, the company's system for letting its AI assistants draw on personal context, the information may be used to target ads. The revision took effect on October 16 and was spotted by Android Authority, then reported by The Verge and 9to5Google.

What it means for you

By default, the contents of those apps are still not used for personalized ads. The exception applies when a user turns on the personal AI features that let Google's assistants read and reason over mail, files and pictures. Anyone who has switched those features on should assume the same data can now inform advertising, not just answers to questions.

The pattern to watch

Personal assistants are only useful if they know your context, and that context is exactly what advertising systems want. As Google, Meta and others fold AI helpers into everyday apps, privacy policies are becoming the place where that trade-off is written down — often in language few users read. Reading the settings page, not the press release, is where the practical answer sits.

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