Turning on Google's Personal Intelligence feature lets your emails and photos shape the ads you see

Google updated its privacy policy on October 16 to permit content from Gmail, Drive, and Photos to influence advertising. This change is linked to the company's Personal Intelligence feature. The update modifies previous language that stated personalized ads were not based on data from these specific services.

The revised text now includes an exception. It applies unless a user explicitly makes data from these services available to other Google services that support personalized ads. The choice to enable this sharing appears to be tied to turning on Personal Intelligence. This feature began rolling out in beta earlier in 2026. It allows the Gemini model to use data shared across Google apps, including Search, Gmail, Photos, and Drive.

The policy outlines a specific exchange for this data sharing. Users can allow services like Search or Gemini to access data from other apps in return for a more personalized experience. The document provides an example where Search processes this data to customize content, including the ads displayed to the user. This creates a direct link between a user's stored content and the advertisements they encounter.

Google has not stated that it shares the full contents of an inbox, cloud storage, or photo library with advertisers. However, the new wording makes it possible to target ads using this connected content. The company maintains that advertisers will not see personally identifying information, such as names or email addresses, without user permission. This protection remains consistent with earlier versions of the policy.

Personal Intelligence remains an opt-in feature for most users. Those concerned about the change can review their settings through the My Account page. Users should navigate to the Data & privacy section and select Personalization settings. From there, they can choose Manage Personalized Recommendations in Search services.

The settings page includes a Turn off button that disables personalized recommendations entirely. This control allows users to opt out of the broader personalization model that now encompasses data from Gmail, Drive, and Photos.