The news: Google updated its privacy policy to allow information in a user’s Gmail, Photos, and Drive to be used to personalize ads in AI Mode.

The company formerly prohibited this practice, but this month it added a stipulation that opts in users who connect their Gmail, Photos, and Drive accounts to Gemini or AI Mode, per gHacks.

Google shared several guardrails for the new policy:

• Advertisers won’t have access to the data shared from connected apps.
• Sensitive categories will be excluded from personalized ads, including race, religion, sexual orientation, and health.
• Users can opt out by turning off personalized ads for Gmail and Photos or disconnecting apps from AI Mode and Gemini.

Why this matters: Google is making adjustments to long-held advertising practices to accommodate its focus on personal intelligence. While Gemini doesn’t currently show ads, AI Mode does, and this policy change could make the platform even more valuable to advertisers as it becomes a bigger feature in Google’s search experience.

The size of Google’s connected app ecosystem makes ad content especially relevant—for instance, an AI Mode user could see an ad for a particular winter jacket that resembles screenshots in their Photos library and is timed to an upcoming trip to Iceland based on flight information pulled from their Gmail.

The caveat: This level of personalization might border on creepy for many users. Nearly half (45%) of US adults cite data use as a leading concern around AI shopping, per Omnisend. If overly personalized ads appear on top of overly personalized recommendations, users may choose to opt out of personal intelligence or drop AI Mode entirely.

Recommendations for marketers: Get ahead of Google’s new policy by determining the degree of ad personalization that customers are comfortable with.

• Communicate this update to customers via email blasts and social media posts. Actively bringing it to their attention signals good faith and could strengthen trust.
• Include a survey for customers in messaging and frame it as a way for the brand to best serve their needs. The survey should pose hypotheticals for personalized ads, such as “Are you comfortable with seeing ads based on information sourced from your emails?”
• Provide Google’s opt-out instructions at the end of the survey and use the rest of the results as a map for navigating future opportunities around personal intelligence and advertising.

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