Consider this a belated PSA. Recent changes to Google’s privacy settings allow the company to store more data, including media such as “images, files, and audio and video recordings,” to improve its AI models. In other words, when you upload media to Google’s search service, it will be used to train its AI unless you opt out.
The change was made possible by a discreet update to privacy settings for Google’s search service that was announced via customer email in June. With this update, the company has essentially opted to participate in this expanded AI training in the name of giving users more control over their saved history and personalized recommendations.
This update introduces two new settings, Search History and Personalized Recommendations, that let you control how your activity is used to personalize your Google experience and how long your web and app activity is saved.
This update applies to Google Search itself, and includes other search services such as Maps, Shopping, Flights, Hotels, Translation, and News.
For example, if you use Google Lens to take a photo to visually search for something, that image may be saved for AI training.
Similarly, when you use the new Search Live feature to search with voice input in the Google app, these voice recordings may be saved, just like other Google voice searches. When you practice speaking using Google Translate, your audio is also saved.
This shift reflects an industry-wide shift to collecting data by any means necessary to improve AI services. Rather than relying solely on information collected from the web, companies like Google are increasingly collecting data that people upload or create when they use their services. Meta is another example of a consumer tech company doing this at scale, training its AI on users’ images and media, as well as content recorded by its AI glasses.
Google directly acknowledges the use of media training, stating in its email to customers: “Similar to search service history, stored media is also used to develop and improve Google’s services and technologies, such as AI models and safety measures.”
The company’s help documentation reflects this, stating that the company “uses your history to provide, develop, and improve our services (such as training generative AI models) and, with the help of human reviewers, to protect Google, its users, and the public.”
Some of this storage is temporary and tied to product behavior, but Google’s own language says it can also keep stored media specifically for AI training.
Adjust settings
The good news is that you have some control here. You can change the settings on the (Search Service History) and (Search Service Personalization) pages. For the former, you can uncheck the “Media Preservation” box separately from the “Search Service History” box, or you can uncheck both. You can also set how often your saved data is automatically deleted (after 3 months, 18 months, or 36 months).
From there, you can go to this page to explore other privacy settings, including your web and app activity, timeline, YouTube history, and more.
In addition to saved media, Google uses your search history, location, and other information from the websites you visit to personalize your experience on Google, including which ads you see.
Before this update, you could control what search history data Google saved through your Web & App Activity settings. It’s now separated into two settings: web and app activity data, and a new search data setting that’s turned on by default.
This means that if you changed your web and app activity data retention settings to opt out of having your data stored by the tech giant, this update will no longer affect your use of Google Search services, since Google Search services are now a separate option.
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