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.
This is also why I don’t trust Brave either. Any company that profits off an ad network and can change the rules whenever they want is dangerous. Even if Brave doesn’t do it now, doesn’t mean they won’t.
That was always the deal with gmail though
I already have a different email address. I just need an alternative to Google drive, and Google docs then, I can bail on Google forever. I’m so tired of Google doing evil and privacy invasive shit.
Do you need the collaborative aspect of Google docs?
I use it for DnD a lot to take notes and share them with my group. Would be nice to find something with that functionality.
UGH FINE ASSHOLES I’LL DEGOOGLE
gonna take me like 15 minutes this is outrageous
How long until this gets used as a reason to gaslight people into using the memory leak browser? 🤔
Anyone happen to have a large repository of butthole pictures I can borrow?
I use this one on grindr.
For what I do understand is that they will use your pictures to serve you targeted ads to what you are interested of, if that’s the case probably you’ll get ads about butthole bleaching
Oh, I don’t mind all that. As long as I get the pictures.
I too am very interested in this.
Since it seems to be tied to Gemini settings, I think they were not able to design gemini integration in a way that separates data used by gemini from gmail and photos. Let’s say if google uses your gemini chats for targeted ads, if gemini mentions your emails, that will already be part of the data being tracked for ads. So, maybe just disable gemini chat history.
Not able to seems less likely than chose not to. Google has plenty of resources to throw at the problem.
I thought i had to disable that shirt years ago. Let me guess… they turned it back on?
Anyone recommend a self hosted alternative to Google photos?
Hands down immich.
Just for completeness: If you are looking for an android gallery app without backup/sync and which is privacy friendly, try Fossify gallery
https://www.fossify.org/apps/gallery/+1 for Fossify, the developer is a great guy who forked the old and now ad-riddled Simple Gallery
I know multiple people below you said Immich already but to give more details: it absolutely is one of the most well run and stable self hosted apps I own. Extremely reliable and works exactly as I need it. It was one of the first FOSS applications I supported monetarily because I believed in it so much.
Photoprism or Immich
Photos is immich for sure
There’s multiple. Immich comes to mind
So here’s an advertisement for an advertisement? Because that’s my gmail content.
What a great reminder to turn off all those trackers. Thanks Lemmy!
I was thinking what a great reminder to take pictures with a camera not a phone.
To listen to music with a music player that has physical memory not cloud.
To keep things separate and private that you want to keep to yourself.
Posteo is a quality service.
Remember when the entire selling point of Gmail was lots of storage and “no obtrusive ads like Yahoo Mail or Hotmail”? Pepperidge Farms remembers.
I still miss the free unlimited 2mp backup for photos.
Turning that off topped off my storage and I’ve been over 90% ever since.
Google has turned its back on every single thing it use to stand for. Down to the “don’t be evil” slogan.
It really hasn’t. It’s always been a commercial outfit and it’s been true to that goal: make money. Consumers keep making fantastical stories about a titan of surveillance-capitalism though. It was financed via the CIA and it has been working with the USA’s intelligence-community from day dot. It hasn’t changed. It’s still Google and it will continue being Google.
Wait… This is new? They didn’t do that already? Really? I though this was the whole business model which made Google so big.
Huh. Shows you how cynical I am, I already thought they were doing this.
