Google's Gmail and Photos ads promise now has an exception

For years Google's policy said, without qualification: “We don't show you personalized ads based on your content from Drive, Gmail, or Photos.” The version effective October 16, 2026 keeps that sentence and adds a condition: “unless you choose to make data from these services available to other Google services that support personalized ads.” Google publishes the change as a redline against the previous version, so the inserted wording is visible in its own archive.

A second new passage explains the mechanism: “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, including ads.” The general basis for ad targeting also widened, from your “interests and activity across Google services” to your “interests, activity, or personalized content from Google services.” PPC Land, which compared the new wording against 54 earlier archived versions, reports the old promise had stood in identical wording since July 1, 2021.

Personal Intelligence is the opt-in feature that lets Google's AI products read your own data to give more tailored answers. For Search, Google's help page lists Google Workspace (currently Gmail and Google Calendar) and Google Photos as the apps you can connect; The Hacker News describes the Gemini app version as also covering YouTube. The policy wording itself also names Drive, but the help page does not list Drive as a connectable Search app today. Google unveiled it in Gemini in January 2026, and The Hacker News reports it is rolling out as a beta to eligible users over 18 globally, except in the European Economic Area, Switzerland, the U.K., and Nigeria. Google's own example is a hotel booking in an email that Search draws on to suggest things to do nearby.

That same connection is what the new exception covers. The ad language names Search as the service that may process shared data for ads; it does not announce ads in the Gemini app. Google told Search Engine Land it is starting to test ads in AI Mode for users who connect their apps through Personal Intelligence, reversing the experience's earlier ad-free approach; Search Engine Land notes Google has announced no advertiser controls, targeting options, or wider rollout. Google's help page says connecting apps applies to all Search services (Search including AI Mode and Discover, Maps, Shopping, Flights, Hotels, Translate, and News), and reporters note the policy does not list which services support personalized ads.

Google's policy and help page describe several limits that stay in place. Google still says it does not show personalized ads based on sensitive categories such as race, religion, sexual orientation, or health, and does not share information that personally identifies you with advertisers, such as your name or email, unless you ask it to. Its help page says ads are not based directly on your Gmail inbox or Photos library; what can reach ad targeting is summaries and inferences Search draws from connected content while answering you.

Google's help page says that same information “may be used to show you ads.” Reporters illustrate this with an example: a trip inferred from a booking email could sit alongside your searches when ads are chosen; that example is theirs, not Google's. Google did not announce the edit in a blog post, and Google's policy archive publishes it as a redline against the previous version.

If you connected Gmail or Photos to Search and would rather not have that data used for ads, open your Google Account and go to Search Services Personalization, then Personalized Recommendations. From there you can disconnect Google Workspace and Google Photos under Additional Personal Intelligence, Connected Content Apps, or turn off Personalized Recommendations entirely. Personalized ads are managed separately in My Ad Center. Google says it is currently updating these settings, so labels may differ.

One catch, in Google's own words on its help page: “Disconnecting a connected Google content app or deleting any data in that app doesn't delete any data from your Search Services History. That data can still be used for product improvement, including training generative AI models.” You can manage and delete that history at activity.google.com. And if you never connected those apps, your ordinary search and YouTube activity could already shape ads, as before, and under the policy wording your Gmail, Drive, and Photos content is not used for personalized ads.