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Google's privacy policy now has a loophole for using your Gmail and Photos data in ads
TechSpot • • technology
Key Points:
- Google updated its privacy policy on October 16 to allow its AI features, like Personal Intelligence in Search, to access data from Gmail and Google Photos for personalized ads if users opt in.
- Personal Intelligence, available to US users, lets AI Mode pull context from apps such as Gmail and Photos to provide personalized responses, and this information may also be used indirectly for ad targeting.
- While advertisers cannot directly access Gmail or Photos content, Google may use AI-generated summaries and inferences from these apps for ad personalization, excluding sensitive categories like health and religion.
- This marks a shift from Google's 2017 policy when it stopped scanning inboxes for ad targeting, now permitting indirect use of inbox content for ads through AI features.
- Users can opt out by disconnecting Gmail and Google Photos from connected apps in their Google Account settings or by turning off ad personalization in My Ad Center, though the latter may not fully prevent AI access.
