Consider this a belated PSA: A recent change to Google’s privacy settings allows the company to store more of your data, including media like “images, files, and audio and video recordings” to improve its AI models. In other words, when you upload media to Google’s search services, it will be used to train the AI unless you opt out.
The change came through a covert update to privacy settings for Google’s search services, announced via email from a customer in June. With the update, the company has essentially chosen people for this advanced AI training under the guise of giving users more control over their saved history and personalized recommendations.
Photo credit:Google (screenshot)
The update introduced two new settings: Search Service History and Personalized Recommendations, which allow you to configure how your activity is used to personalize your Google experience and how long your web and app activity is retained.
This update extends beyond Google Search to include other search services such as Maps, Shopping, Flights, Hotels, Translate and News.
For example, if you search for something visually using Google Lens by taking a photo, that image can now be saved for AI training.
If you use the newer Search Live feature to search by voice in the Google app, these audio recordings could be saved just like any other Google voice search. When you use Google Translate to practice speaking, this sound is also saved.
The changes reflect a broader industry shift toward data collection by any means necessary to improve AI services. Rather than relying solely on information from the web, Google and others are increasingly collecting data that people upload or create when they use their services. Meta is another example of a consumer-focused tech company doing this at scale, training its AI on users’ images and media, as well as the content recorded by its AI glasses.
Google confirms its use of media training directly, stating in this email to customers: “Like your search service history, your stored media is also used to develop and improve Google services and technologies, including AI models and security measures.”
The help documentation reflects this, noting that the company “uses your story to provide, develop, and improve its services (e.g., training generative AI models) and to protect Google, its users, and the public through human reviewers.”
Some of this storage is temporary and tied to the functionality of the product, but according to Google’s own language, stored media can also be kept specifically for training the AI.
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Customize your settings
The good news is that you have some control here. You can change your settings on the Search History and Search Personalization pages. For the former, you can uncheck the Save Media checkbox separately from the Search Service History checkbox, or both. You can also configure how often saved data should be automatically deleted – after three months, 18 months or 36 months.
From there, you can jump to this page to view other privacy settings, including web and app activity, timeline, YouTube history, and more.
Photo credit:Google (screenshot)
In addition to stored media, Google also uses your search history, location, and other information from the websites you visit to personalize your experience on Google, including the ads you see.
Before this update, Google was able to configure what historical search data was saved through the Web and App Activity settings. This is now split into two settings: the web and app activity data and the new Search Data setting, which is enabled by default.
This means that if you make a change to the data retention settings for web and app activity to prevent the tech giant from storing your data, the update will no longer affect your use of Google search services as it is now a separate option.
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https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/06/if-you-use-google-youre-training-its-ai-heres-how-to-opt-out/
