Google Search may use Gmail and Photos context for ads if you connect them

Google’s privacy policy, effective October 16, 2026, lets Search use context from Gmail or Google Photos to personalize ads if you choose to connect them. The permission that helps tailor an answer can also affect the ads you see.

How a helpful answer can also inform an ad

Google says Search does not base ads directly on your Gmail inbox or Google Photos library. But summaries, excerpts and inferences drawn from connected content can help personalize your experience—and that same information may also be used for ads.

Google illustrates the feature with restaurant suggestions for an upcoming trip. AI Mode may draw on hotel and flight details in emails, along with information about restaurants you visited on earlier trips from your photos, to recommend places near your destination.

Connecting those apps is optional. The policy does not mean every mailbox is automatically connected or that every connected email or photo will be used for advertising.

What the connection covers

Advertisers do not get access to a connected Gmail inbox or Google Photos library. Google also excludes sensitive categories such as race, religion, sexual orientation and health from personalized-ad targeting.

To connect content apps, you must be 18 or older, signed into a personal Google Account and have Personalized Recommendations enabled.

The Google Workspace connection currently covers Gmail and Google Calendar, with Calendar linking limited to English in the US. Google Photos can also be connected, but not in every region. Drive appears in the broader privacy policy but is not listed as a currently connectable Search content app.

Disconnecting an app does not clear its Search history

In your Google Account, go to Data & privacy → Personalization settings → Search Services Personalization. Under Additional Personal Intelligence → Connected Content Apps, you can disconnect Google Workspace or Google Photos.

Menus and availability may differ during the gradual rollout. Google’s official settings guide (https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/17026260?hl=en) says that if the new controls do not match your account, Search history and personalized recommendations are still controlled through Web & App Activity.

Disconnecting an app—or deleting the original email or photo—does not remove data already saved in Search Services History. Manage or delete that history separately in My Activity (https://myactivity.google.com/). Turning off Personalized Recommendations does not delete it either.

Ad personalization has its own controls in My Ad Center (https://myadcenter.google.com?hl=en_US). You can still use AI Mode and Ask Maps without connecting content apps.