Google Changed the Rules on Your Gmail and Ads. Here's the Off Switch.

By Evan · Monday, October 26, 2026 · 3-minute read

An illustration labeled GMAIL + PHOTOS shows an envelope and a landscape photo passing a key toward a red circle that says ADS?
Illustration by What You Missed.

The short version

Google used to say plainly: no personalized ads based on your Gmail, Drive or Photos. As of October 16, there's an unless. If you connected those apps to Google's AI helper, called Personal Intelligence, they can now help shape the ads you see in Google's AI search.

A promise with a new “unless”

For years, Google’s privacy policy said it plainly: “We don’t show you personalized ads based on your content from Drive, Gmail, or Photos.”

On October 16, Google updated that policy, the tech site Ars Technica reports. The Verge says Google added this line: “unless you choose to make data from these services available to other Google services that support personalized ads.”

The change was first spotted by the site Android Authority.

What’s an AI helper got to do with it?

Earlier this year, Google launched an AI feature called Personal Intelligence. It lets you connect your Gmail, Google Photos and other Google apps to its AI helpers, like the Gemini app and the AI answers in Google Search (called AI Mode). The idea: if the AI helper knows more about you, its answers get better.

Here’s the twist. The Gemini app doesn’t show ads right now, Ars says. But Google’s AI search can show sponsored results. So if you connected your apps, what the AI helper learns from them can now help shape those ads.

Think of it like this

Imagine handing a store clerk your shopping list so they can help you find things. Handy! But now the same clerk can also use that list to decide which coupons to hand you.

That’s roughly the deal if you’ve connected your apps to Personal Intelligence.

What Google says

Google says it’s not as bad as it sounds. In a statement to Ars, it said:

“Connecting 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.”

The Verge reports that advertisers don’t get your Gmail, Drive or Photos content, or details like your name or email address. It adds that Google won’t target ads based on sensitive things like race, religion or health.

The catch

It’s opt-in. But Ars says Google uses “various prompts and pop-ups” to get people to turn Personal Intelligence on, without fully explaining what it means. “You may have turned it on without realizing,” Ars warns.

How to turn it off

If you never connected your apps to Personal Intelligence, this change doesn’t affect you. If you’re not sure, here’s how to check, according to Ars Technica:

  1. Go to your Google Account settings.
  2. Tap Data & privacy.
  3. Tap Personalization settings.
  4. Tap Manage Personalized Recommendations in Search Services.
  5. Tap Connected Content Apps.
  6. Switch off the connections to Workspace (that’s Gmail, Drive and the like) and Google Photos.

Ars says the easiest way may be through the Gemini app’s settings for Personal Intelligence, where you can turn off the connected apps. The Verge adds that you can also turn off Personalized Recommendations entirely on that same Search settings page.

Not comfortable poking around in settings? This is a good one to ask a tech-savvy family member to check with you.

Sources

  • Ars Technica, “Updated Google privacy policy says your Gmail might be used for advertising,” Ryan Whitwam, Oct. 23, 2026: arstechnica.com
  • The Verge, “Now Google says it might use your Gmail and Google Photos data to target ads,” Jess Weatherbed, Oct. 23, 2026: theverge.com

This story was in the issue of Monday, October 26, 2026.