Privacy Policy
Google added a new opt-in feature letting services like Search and Gemini Apps pull data from other Google products (Gmail, Drive, Photos, Workspace) to personalize your experience, and feeds this into personalized ads too — a change that also makes a previous privacy promise about ads conditional rather than absolute.
Private content from Gmail, Drive, and Photos can now feed into ad targeting
Google previously made a clear, unconditional promise never to use what's inside your Drive files, Gmail messages, or Photos to target ads at you. That promise now has a loophole: if you enable the new cross-service personalization feature, that same private content can be used to personalize the ads you see. Even though this requires opting in, it weakens a protection consumers may have relied on, and the opt-in prompts may not make the ad-targeting consequence obvious.
“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.”
What you can do — Check your Google Account settings for any new cross-service data sharing or 'Personal Intelligence' toggle and leave it off if you don't want Gmail/Drive/Photos content used to personalize ads or other services.
New feature lets one Google service read your data from another
Google introduced a way for apps like Search and Gemini to access what you've stored or done in other Google apps (Photos, Gmail, Drive) to personalize your experience. This expands how widely your data moves across Google's own products, even though it's opt-in.
“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”
What you can do — Review and adjust your Google Account activity/personalization settings if you don't want data shared between services like Search, Gemini, Gmail, Drive, and Photos.
| 75 | 75 | ### Develop new services |
| 76 | 76 | |
| 77 | 77 | We use the information we collect in existing services to help us develop new ones. For example, understanding how people organized their photos in Picasa, Google's first photos app, helped us design and launch Google Photos. |
| 78 | 78 | |
| 79 | 79 | ### Provide personalized services, including content and ads |
| 80 | 80 | |
| 81 | We use the information we collect to customize our services for you, including providing recommendations, personalized content, and [customized search results](https://policies.google.com/privacy). For example, [Security Checkup](https://myaccount.google.com/security-checkup) provides security tips adapted to how you use Google products. And, depending on your available settings, Google Play could use information like apps you've already installed and videos you've watched on YouTube to suggest new apps you might like. | |
| 81 | We use the information we collect to customize our services for you, including providing recommendations, personalized content, and [customized search results](https://policies.google.com/privacy). For example, [Security Checkup](https://myaccount.google.com/security-checkup) provides security tips adapted to how you use Google products. And, depending on your available settings, Google Play could use information like apps you've already installed and videos you've watched on YouTube to suggest new apps you might like. 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. For example, Search may process some of the data that you allow Search to access to [personalize content](https://policies.google.com/privacy), including ads. | |
+ ADDEDNew cross-service personalization: Search/Gemini can pull data from Photos, Gmail, Drive Google added a new feature where, if you turn it on, services like Search or Gemini Apps can read data from other Google apps you use — including Google Photos, Gmail, and Drive — to personalize what you see. For example, Search could use details from a hotel-booking email to suggest nearby things to do. | ||
| 82 | 82 | |
| 83 | Depending on your settings, we may also show you [personalized ads](https://policies.google.com/privacy) based on your interests and activity across Google services. For example, if you search for "mountain bikes," you may see ads for sports equipment on YouTube. You can control what information we use to show you ads by visiting your ad settings in [My Ad Center](https://myadcenter.google.com/). | |
| 83 | Depending on your settings, we may also show you [personalized ads](https://policies.google.com/privacy) based on your interests, activity, or personalized content from Google services. For example, if you search for "mountain bikes," in Search you may see ads for sports equipment on YouTube. You can control what information we use to show you ads by visiting your ad settings in [My Ad Center](https://myadcenter.google.com/). | |
± CHANGEDAd personalization basis broadened to include "personalized content" The description of what personalized ads are based on expanded from just "interests and activity" to also include "personalized content from Google services" — meaning content Google has generated or curated for you can now also shape the ads you see. | ||
| 84 | 84 | |
| 85 | 85 | - We don't show you personalized ads based on [sensitive categories](https://policies.google.com/privacy), such as race, religion, sexual orientation, or health. |
| 86 | - We don't show you personalized ads based on your content from Drive, Gmail, or Photos. | |
| 86 | - 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. | |
± CHANGEDPersonalized ads can now draw on content from Drive, Gmail, and Photos if you opt in Google's policy used to flatly promise it would never use the content of your Drive files, Gmail, or Photos to target ads. Now that promise has an exception: if you turn on the new cross-service data sharing, that same content can feed into ad personalization. | ||
| 87 | 87 | - We don't share information that personally identifies you with advertisers, such as your name or email, unless you ask us to. For example, if you see an ad for a nearby flower shop and select the "tap to call" button, we'll connect your call and may share your phone number with the flower shop. |
| 88 | 88 | |
| 89 | 89 | ### Measure performance |
| 90 | 90 | |
| 91 | 91 | We use data for analytics and measurement to understand how our services are used. For example, we analyze data about your visits to our sites to do things like optimize product design. And we also use data about the ads you interact with, including your related Google Search activity, to help advertisers understand the [performance of their ad campaigns](https://policies.google.com/privacy). We use a variety of tools to do this, including ad and analytics services. When you visit sites or use apps that use Google's ad or analytics services, those services may [link information](https://policies.google.com/privacy) about your activity from that site or app with activity from other sites or apps that use our services. |
| 92 | 92 | |
| 635 | 635 | We may also use payment information to verify that you meet age requirements, if, for example, you enter an incorrect birthday indicating you're not old enough to have a Google Account. [Learn more](https://support.google.com/accounts) |
| 636 | 636 | |
| 637 | 637 | ### Performance of their ad campaigns. |
| 638 | 638 | |
| 639 | 639 | [Learn more](https://policies.google.com/technologies/ads) about the technologies used for advertising. |
| 640 | 640 | |
| 641 | ### personalize content | |
| 642 | ||
| 643 | If you choose to allow certain services to process data from other services, including for features such as Personal Intelligence, the same data may be used to personalize your experience. For example, if you ask Search a question about a recent hotel booking, Search may use information about booking details from an email to help suggest things to do near your hotel. [Learn more about Personal Intelligence](https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/16859283). | |
+ ADDEDNew "Personal Intelligence" feature explained A new glossary entry describes "Personal Intelligence," the feature that uses data pulled from one Google service (like an email) to personalize another (like Search suggestions). | ||
| 644 | ||
| 641 | 645 | ### personalized ads |
| 642 | 646 | |
| 643 | 647 | You may also see personalized ads based on information from the advertiser. If you shopped on an advertiser's website, for example, they can use that visit information to show you ads. [Learn more](https://support.google.com/accounts) |
| 644 | 648 | |
| 645 | 649 | ### phone number |
| 646 | 650 | |