Google has updated its privacy policy to allow personal information from Gmail, Google Photos, and Drive to potentially be used for targeted advertising, raising new questions about how the company handles users’ private data.
The change, which took effect on October 16, introduces a significant exception to Google’s previous promise that it would not use content from these services to personalize advertisements.
As first spotted by Android Authority, the updated policy specifically affects users who connect their personal information to Google’s AI-powered services, including Search and Gemini.
A mix of both would be great. Something where your target your ads based on the content only, like the old days, and you don’t need to know your customers at all. Only what you guess they’re most likely to be interested in.
Put gaming ads on twitch streams, or pay a youtuber to be a sponsor. They’re plenty of ways to “target your ads” while not needing to gather all the information you can possibly gather on every single individual in the world
Yeah there’s a been a few attempts at “privacy preserving” user id hashing like Google Topics, ID5, and many more.
Publishers love private deals for ad spend, it’s just more work and can be inconsistent vs programmatic that is less revenue but always flowing.