If you upload photos to Google Search, run a Google Lens query or search with your voice, this one is for you. Google is rolling out a new privacy setting that can use the images, files and audio you put into Search to train the company's AI models. The catch is that the option arrives switched on, which means the burden falls on you to turn it off.
Google recently emailed many users with the subject line, "New privacy settings for Search services." The change is part of a global rollout happening over the next few months that will alter how the company handles the data tied to your Search history.
What is actually being saved
Google is no longer storing only what you type into the Search box. From the photos you upload for reverse image searches to the audio of you speaking into Google Translate, this media can be retained in your account and used to improve Google's AI models.
As the settings page puts it, "Your saved media includes your images, files, and audio and video recordings from your interactions with Search services. This includes things like Google Lens images, recordings from Search Live or Translate speaking practice, content you upload, and voice searches."
The reason is straightforward. AI models need more than text to improve, they need diverse inputs such as audio and video. If Google can gather more data, and more kinds of data, from its vast user base, it could innovate faster than its rivals.
The setting comes switched on
This new option in account settings is called Search Services History, and it was already enabled the first time the page was visited. If a user had previously disabled the Web & App Activity and Search Personalization toggles, then it would be off. On top of that, the box to save all uploaded media from Google Search for AI training was already checked.
How to opt out
Once this reaches your account, you can go to Google's My Activity page and select the Search Services History tab to opt out. The page gives you a clear sense of what Google saves from your Search history. It is also where you can switch off the entire setting and delete your activity. If you do not want your image uploads used for AI training, it is essential to uncheck the box next to Save media.
Why doing it now matters
It is worth making this change sooner rather than later, because there is little you can do once your media has gone into the AI blender. A pop-up that appears when the feature is turned off reads, "If your saved media is used to train our AI models, it is disconnected from your Google Account. This training data will be kept for up to 4 years, even if you delete the original activity." That is a very long time for even a random image upload to drift around in the digital ether.
Davis Thompson, a Google spokesperson, said over email, "These new settings help users get more relevant results and revisit their searches, including visual and voice searches, and they can be turned on or off at any time." He did not address why the feature is on by default.
Why Google's position is different
Google's huge user base is spread across many services, which gives it an edge in collecting data. "Google is in a unique spot compared to a lot of the other companies with this," says Thorin Klosowski, a senior security and privacy activist at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. "Because they offer so many services that people have been using for so long and have grown pretty comfortable and complacent with the amount of data collected." Apps people use every day carry a built-in inertia, so even changes users dislike may not be enough to push them toward alternatives.
Being made to opt out of AI training has become the norm across sites and platforms, yet it does not have to be that way. "I think 'opt in' is really asking the bare minimum of these companies," Klosowski says. "Asking their users to consciously choose to enable these features is the least they can do." If these features were not turned on automatically, he adds, Google would have to make a stronger case to users about why they could be helpful.
The email sold the perks, stayed quiet on training
In the email sent on June 23, the very first sentence framed the change as giving users "even more control over saved history." The message then offered examples of how saving this media could help. "For example, this lets you revisit your past visual searches with Lens or continue a Search Live conversation about a song you heard." Tellingly, no such examples followed when the email noted near the end that this saved media would be used for AI model training. The message simply moved on to the next detail.
The growing load on users
This is another major software change that everyday users deserve a chance to slow down and process. "It creates this extra layer of math that a consumer has to do about whether they feel comfortable using the tool they've been using for a long time," says Ben Winters, director of AI and privacy at the Consumer Federation of America.
Winters sees the change as placing the responsibility for avoiding AI training on users, which can feed a widespread exhaustion bordering on nihilism. "There's an increasing feeling of powerlessness and hopelessness about even trying to protect your data, because every little thing is going to be squeezed out of you," he says.
