Google Changed Its Privacy Policy on Gmail and Ads. What Does It Allow?

What Did Google Change?

Until 2017, Google used the content of personal Gmail accounts to personalize ads. That June, it announced that personal accounts would follow its business version, G Suite, which already kept email content out of ads. The post said that after the change, which was planned for later that year, "Consumer Gmail content will not be used or scanned for any ads personalization."

Google's privacy policy has made a similar promise since July 2021, covering Drive and Photos as well as Gmail. It read, "We don't show you personalized ads based on your content from Drive, Gmail, or Photos." On October 16, 2026, Google added an exception to the end of that sentence, "unless you choose to make data from these services available to other Google services that support personalized ads."

A new passage in the policy explains how people make that choice. It says they may allow Google services such as Search or Gemini Apps to access Gmail, Drive, and Google Photos to get a more personalized experience. It then gives an example, "Search may process some of the data that you allow Search to access to personalize content, including ads."

Who Does the Change Affect?

Search is the one service that the policy names as using connected data for ads. According to Google's help page, people can connect Gmail, Google Calendar, and Google Photos to Search so that AI Mode and Ask Maps can draw on their emails, events, and photos. Google calls the feature Personal Intelligence. Drive cannot be connected yet, although Google says other Workspace apps are "coming soon."

Connecting the apps is optional. The same page says that people must be 18 or older and signed in to a personal Google Account, which leaves out work and school accounts managed through Google Workspace. Its list of countries where the feature is available leaves out the European Union, the United Kingdom, and Switzerland.

The connection also reaches beyond AI Mode. Google's help page says that "all Search services will be permitted to access" the connected apps. It lists those services as Google Search, Maps, Shopping, Flights, Hotels, Translate, and Google News.

What Does Google Say About the Ads?

Google's help page says, "Ads will not be based directly on your Gmail inbox or your Google Photos library." Instead, Search may draw on "summaries, excerpts and inferences" from those apps to personalize its answers. Google adds that the same information "may be used to show you ads, so they are even more helpful for you."

The same page says that Google does not show personalized ads based on sensitive categories, "such as race, religion, sexual orientation, or health." It also says that connecting the apps does not give advertisers access to the inbox or the photo library.

What Else Can Google Do with Connected Data?

Google's help page says it "may use that data to improve Google services for everyone, including by training generative AI models." It trains those models on summaries, excerpts, and inferences rather than on the inbox directly. However, it notes that for a short or highly relevant email, "the summary may just be the email or file."

People also see some of the data. Google says that a subset of what AI Mode and Ask Maps process is reviewed by human reviewers, including trained service providers, to debug, protect, and improve its services. It advises against connecting apps that hold personal or confidential information that people would not want a reviewer to see.

What Does the Law Say About Changing a Privacy Promise?

Companies may change their privacy policies, but the Federal Trade Commission has warned about how they do it. In a 2024 post, FTC staff wrote that it "may be unfair or deceptive" for a company to adopt more permissive data practices and to inform consumers only "through a surreptitious, retroactive amendment" to its privacy policy. The post adds, "A business that collects user data based on one set of privacy commitments cannot then unilaterally renege on those commitments after collecting users' data."

Google's own policy makes a commitment about changes. It says, "We will not reduce your rights under this Privacy Policy without your explicit consent." Google may treat the choice to connect apps as that consent, at least for people who connect after October 16.

Personal Intelligence in AI Mode launched in January 2026 for paying subscribers in the United States. People who connected Gmail or Google Photos between then and October 16 did so under a policy that said their content would not be used for ads. Google's help page does not say whether the exception applies to data from connections made before the change.

What Can Google Users Do?

People who connected Gmail or Google Photos to Search can disconnect them at any time, under Search Services Personalization in their Google Account. Ad settings are separate. In My Ad Center, people can control what information Google uses to personalize their ads.

Disconnecting does not erase what Search has already stored. Google's help page says that disconnecting an app "doesn't delete any data from your Search Services History," which "can still be used for product improvement, including training generative AI models." I recommend that people who disconnect also review that history, which they can manage and delete at activity.google.com.