Google Is Training Its AI on Your Data — Here's How to Opt Out

A quiet update to Google's privacy settings now allows the company to use more of your personal data to train its AI models. If you haven't reviewed your settings recently, you're likely opted in by default. Here's what changed and how to take back control.

Google has updated its privacy settings in a way that expands how your data can be used to train its AI systems — and most users are opted in without realizing it.

What Changed

The update affects how Google handles data across its core products, including Search, Maps, and YouTube. Previously, certain data categories had more limited use; the revised policy broadens Google's ability to apply that data toward AI model training and improvement.

This isn't buried in a terms-of-service footnote — it's an active setting change that defaults to opt-in, meaning users must manually disable it if they want to limit AI training on their activity.

Why It Matters

Google products are used by billions of people daily, making this one of the largest passive AI data collection pipelines on the planet.
The data involved can include search queries, location history, voice activity, and browsing behavior.
Users who rely on Google's ecosystem for work or personal use may be contributing far more training signal than they intend to.

How to Opt Out

Here's how to update your settings and limit Google's use of your data for AI training:

Go to myaccount.google.com
Navigate to Data & Privacy
Scroll to "My Activity" and review Activity Controls
Under each product category (Web & App Activity, Location History, etc.), look for AI or model improvement settings and toggle them off
Revisit "Shared endorsements" and "Personal results" settings for additional controls
For voice-related data, check Assistant settings in the Google app

"The settings can be fragmented across different Google product dashboards, which makes opting out more effort than opting in." — a recurring criticism from digital rights advocates

The Broader Pattern

This follows a now-familiar playbook from major tech platforms: update policies in favor of AI data collection, default users to the most permissive setting, and rely on low opt-out rates to maximize training data volume.

Meta, Microsoft, and Adobe have all faced similar backlash over comparable moves in recent years. The difference with Google is sheer scale — its data reach across search, email, video, and mobile dwarfs most competitors.

If you haven't audited your Google privacy settings recently, now is the time.