Google's privacy-policy exception: Gmail, Drive, and Photos data could feed targeted ads
From the AI digest for 2026-10-23
What happened: The Verge reports (October 23, ~12:52 PM Eastern, spotted by Android Authority) that Google updated its privacy policy in a way that could mean targeted ads built on personal data for users of personalized AI features: as of October 16, an exception was added to the guarantee not to use Drive, Gmail, or Google Photos for personalized ads — "unless you choose to make data from these services available to other Google..." (the quoted sentence is truncated in the capture, leaving the exact scope of the consent mechanism unclear).
What's genuinely new: Debut for the Google personal-data-to-ads lane: a dated policy change (October 16) that reopened the question of Gmail, Photos, and Drive content feeding ad targeting through personalized AI features.
Watch: the full operative policy text and its mechanics; when and where ads under the exception appear; regulator or state-AG response; how Google presents the opt-in framing to users.
Links: The Verge