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Google’s latest privacy update is raising new questions about how the company may use photos, voice recordings, and other content uploaded through its search tools to improve artificial intelligence (AI).
The change involves Google’s Search Services History setting, which stores information about interactions with Google’s search-related tools when a user is signed in to their account. This includes typed searches, voice searches, photos uploaded through Google Lens, and audio used with tools like Google Translate.
According to Google, users who choose to enable the Save Media option may also allow photos and audio uploaded through those search tools to be used to develop and improve the company’s AI models, as Fox News reported.
The tech company says the policy does not mean every photo stored in Google Photos will be used to train AI, but that any media users intentionally upload while using Google’s search features could be. One example would be a picture of a flower that was uploaded for identification purposes, or a photo of shoes a person might be trying to find online to purchase. These would all fall under the category of saved images, which could be used to improve AI.
This would also mean that personal photos uploaded onto Google search tools could fall under that same umbrella.
Some people are reacting negatively because these interactions feel quick and meaningless, which makes saving the data seem suspect. Currently, Google users can turn off the Save Media setting, but this could affect search functionality, as every search would start from scratch. So the shoes a person searched for three days ago would need to be found again, rather than popping up immediately.
The change also leads to larger questions about how tech companies continually rely on user-generated data to build stronger AI models without full transparency. The companies reveal those intentions under the veil of wordy privacy policies or account settings that most people ignore.
This is likely to remain an issue as the fight over AI usage rages on, with many people wary of how quickly the industry is changing.
