A quiet privacy change may let Google use your uploaded images, audio, and video to improve AI unless you opt out. Check Search privacy controls now.<\/p>\n
An update to Google\u2019s privacy policy changed the approach to data storage, including media \u2013 images, files, audio, and video recordings \u2013 for the purpose of training artificial intelligence. In other words, if you upload media to Google Search services, it may be used to train AI unless you opt out.<\/p>\n
The changes came after an unnoticed update to the privacy policy of the search services, announced in June in a letter to customers. The update allegedly offered users greater control over history retention and personalization, but at the same time introduced new options that allow saving media for AI training.<\/p>\n
The new settings include Search History and Personalized Recommendations, which govern how your activity is used for personalization and the retention period of your web and app activity data.<\/p>\n
These changes apply not only to Google Search but also to other Google services, including Maps, Shopping, Flights, Hotels, Translate, and News.<\/p>\n
For example, when using Google Lens for image-based search, you can allow saving such an image for AI training.<\/p>\n
If you use Search Live or Translate for language practice, the corresponding audio recordings may also be stored, just like other voice queries.<\/p>\n
Just like your Search History, the media you save are also used to develop and improve Google\u2019s services and technologies, including AI models and security measures.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Google<\/p>\n
The Google Help Center confirms the same: your history is used to provide, develop, and improve services (for example, to train generative AI models) and to protect Google, users, and the public through human reviewers.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Google Help Center<\/p>\n
What the changes mean for user privacy<\/p>\n
The key benefit is that users gain greater control over their data. You can adjust the settings on the Search History and Personalization pages: uncheck the option to save media separately from saving search history, or disable both. You can also choose how often saved data is automatically deleted \u2013 after three months, 18 months, or 36 months.<\/p>\n
After this, you should move on to other privacy settings, including Web & App Activity, Timeline, YouTube history, and more.<\/p>\n
In addition to saving media, Google also uses your search history, your location, and other data from sites you visit to personalize your experience and show relevant ads.<\/p>\n
Before this update, Google allowed you to configure which data from your history is included in Web & App Activity. Now this setting is split into Web & App Activity and a new parameter called Search data, which is enabled by default.<\/p>\n
So, if you adjust the Web & App Activity data retention settings, it will not affect your use of Google Search services, since it is now a separate setting.<\/p>\n
In general, it\u2019s worth regularly reviewing privacy settings and active services to understand what data is stored and how it may affect personalization and data protection.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A quiet privacy change may let Google use your uploaded images, audio, and video to improve AI unless…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":96650,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[24,9439,132,1429,41561,8562,50520,50521,66,50522],"class_list":["post-96649","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-google","tag-ai","tag-ai-training-data","tag-google","tag-google-ai","tag-google-lens","tag-google-privacy","tag-google-privacy-ai-training-data-media-uploads-search-privacy-settings-google-lens","tag-media-uploads","tag-news","tag-search-privacy-settings"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96649","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96649"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96649\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/96650"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96649"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}