AI Connections: Google's New Path to Targeted Ads

A change in Google's privacy policy means your personal data could soon be used for targeted advertising.

The company updated its terms on October 16 to add a specific exception to its previous stance. Google's policy had long stated that it would not use personal content from services like Drive, Gmail, or Google Photos for personalized ads. However, the new wording clarifies this is not a permanent rule. The updated policy now reads, "unless you choose to make data from these services available to other Google services that support personalized ads." This change allows Google to use content from these services for advertising if a user has enabled features that require such data sharing.

The policy change is connected to Google's Personal Intelligence feature. This function allows tools like Search and Gemini to access data from other Google services, including Gmail, Drive, and Google Photos, to provide more personalized recommendations and responses. The updated policy explicitly links this personalization with advertising. The policy states, "You may choose to allow certain Google services... to access data from other Google services you use... For example, Search may process some of the data that you allow Search to access to personalize content, including ads." This means that in order to get a more tailored experience with AI features, users may also receive ads targeted based on the information from those connected services.

Google has outlined some important limitations on how this data can be used. First, advertisers do not gain direct access to a user's personal files or personally identifying information such as their name or email address. Second, Google has stated that it will not target ads based on sensitive categories, including race, sexual orientation, religion, or health. For example, the policy notes that if a user searches for 'mountain bikes,' they might see ads for sports equipment on YouTube.

Users who do not wish to have their data used for targeted advertising have options to control this. The policy allows individuals to choose which applications they want to disconnect from the Personal Intelligence features. Alternatively, users can disable the Personalized Recommendations feature entirely through the Search Services Personalization settings page, which would prevent this type of data sharing for ad personalization.