Google's privacy policy update says Gmail and Photos data could feed ads, if you let other services see it

The qualification buried in the policy

The Verge reported that an update to Google's privacy policy opens the door to using Gmail and Google Photos data for ads. A correction near the top of the thread supplied the text that matters, quoted by a commenter: Google will not use these services' data for ads "unless you choose to make data from these services available to other Google services that support personalized ads."

"Choose" is doing a lot of work

The follow-ups all went after that verb. A former engineer who now farms said: "if you're using Gemini in any capacity today, it's authorized to use your photos to serve you personalized ads," because Gemini cannot do anything useful as an assistant without access to everything.

Another reader recalled that their last Android phone showed constant pop-ups in Google's own apps begging to enable sharing, with dark patterns that made saying no difficult. A different commenter suspected that features like flight-confirmation calendar entries ride on the same toggle, so declining to opt out could count as choosing.

Did Google ever stop?

One reader said "Google's always done this, it's the entire reason Gmail exists." A commenter pushed back: Google used Gmail that way originally and stopped years later, and calling it unchanged is cynicism that makes people stop noticing. A reply from another commenter gave a business reason for the pause: the information from purchase receipts was valuable until major retailers stopped sending it by email.

The practical exit

Thread members recommended leaving Google Photos for Immich through Google Takeout, then hit the limits quickly: one reader with 900GB of photos found the export "almost impossible to download," and another reported that metadata was not preserved, so every photo showed the upload date. That is the concrete cost of the opt-out most people will reach for.