{"id":655195,"date":"2026-10-23T22:16:12","date_gmt":"2026-10-23T22:16:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/655195\/"},"modified":"2026-10-23T22:16:12","modified_gmt":"2026-10-23T22:16:12","slug":"updated-google-privacy-policy-says-your-gmail-might-be-used-for-advertising","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/655195\/","title":{"rendered":"Updated Google privacy policy says your Gmail might be used for advertising"},"content":{"rendered":"

Using Google\u2019s products and services has always been fundamentally precarious\u2014doing so gives the world\u2019s largest advertising company a lot of juicy personal data. Google has long said it won\u2019t use the sensitive data from products like Gmail, Drive, and Photos for ad personalization, but a change to the company\u2019s privacy policy appears to dismantle that firewall.<\/p>\n

On October 16, Google issued an update to its privacy policy<\/a>, spotted by Android Authority<\/a>. The ad personalization section used to include a clear limit on data from certain apps. \u201cWe don\u2019t show you personalized ads based on your content from Drive, Gmail, or Photos,\u201d the document said. Now, Google has updated it with the following language.<\/p>\n


\n \"\"
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

Updated language on when your sensitive data might inform ads.<\/p>\n

\n Credit:
\n Google\n <\/p>\n

\n Updated language on when your sensitive data might inform ads.<\/p>\n

Credit:<\/p>\n

Google<\/p>\n

This equivocation opens the door to using data from apps like Gmail and Photos in ads when it\u2019s shared with other Google services, and it just so happens Google has a mechanism for doing that, with Personal Intelligence. The company released Personal Intelligence in early 2026<\/a>, allowing users to hand data from multiple apps to Google AI products. The idea is that the added context from your existing data will lead to better AI answers, but it\u2019s also proving to be a privacy minefield.<\/p>\n

Personal Intelligence connects your data to the Gemini app but also to features like AI Mode search. While the Gemini app does not currently have ads, you may see sponsored content in AI search tools. Google\u2019s changes to the privacy policy appear to acknowledge that data shared with AI search via Personal Intelligence could, therefore, contribute to ad personalization.<\/p>\n

According to Google, this clarification still doesn\u2019t mean ads are \u201cbased directly\u201d on your personal data. Here\u2019s the company\u2019s full statement:<\/p>\n

\u201cConnecting your apps is entirely opt-in. Ads will continue to be relevant to things like your query, the context of the response and your interests. Ads will not be based directly on your Gmail inbox or Photos library, and as always, sensitive information will not be used to tailor ads.\u201d<\/p>\n

Google\u2019s statement is essentially a roundabout way of confirming that Workspace and Photos data may inform ads. If you interact with AI Mode while Personal Intelligence is enabled, there\u2019s a chance that summaries and insights from your data will inform the answers you get. Because that same data is used for ad targeting, it\u2019s accurate to say that your personal data is an element of ad targeting in AI search. The privacy policy now makes that clear.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Using Google\u2019s products and services has always been fundamentally precarious\u2014doing so gives the world\u2019s largest advertising company a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":655196,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[85,46,125],"class_list":["post-655195","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/655195","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=655195"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/655195\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/655196"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=655195"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=655195"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=655195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}