Your Search Uploads, Now AI Training Data
Google has quietly changed how it feeds its AI. The company can now use media you upload to its search tools to train its models, from photos to voice clips to files. The shift arrived through a June update to Google’s privacy settings, presented as giving people more control over their history. In practice, most users were opted in by default.
Key Takeaways
- Google can now use “images, files and audio and video recordings” uploaded to its Search services to train AI models.
- The change covers tools like Google Lens, voice search and Translate, but not Google Photos, which stays out of scope for now.
- Everyone is opted in by default, and turning it off takes a few steps in your account settings.
The scope is broad. Send a photo to Google Lens for a visual search and the company can keep it. The same goes for the audio behind a voice search and anything you upload to Google Translate, across search-linked products like Maps, Shopping, Flights and News. Google Photos is left out, so personal images stored there are safe for now. The change also does not reach Chrome, the Gemini apps, Assistant or YouTube, which each save history under their own settings.
Google confirmed the use directly in its email to users. “Like your Search Services History, your saved media is also used to develop and improve Google services and technologies, including AI models and safety measures,” the company wrote. It says the data is disconnected from your account before training, that filters strip out identifying and sensitive details, and that it asks permission before any human review. Accounts managed by schools are left out by default.
How to Opt Out
The off switch exists; it just takes a couple of stops. Open your Search Services History page in your Google account and turn off Save Media, which stops images, audio and video from being saved without wiping the rest of your search history. Then check the Personalized Recommendations settings to confirm nothing else is being stored. Both matter, since flipping one alone may not be enough. You can also set saved data to auto-delete after 3, 18 or 36 months, or disable Web and App Activity entirely. As an aside, typing “-AI” before a query switches off the AI overview at the top of results.
A Wider Data Grab
Google’s move fits a wider rush across the industry for fresh training data. Models have largely exhausted the open web, so companies are turning to what people upload and create inside their own services. The change came through a quiet settings update, and it echoes moves elsewhere, with rivals training AI on users’ images and even footage from smart glasses. It also lands as publishers and platforms keep fighting over who controls the data that feeds AI, a battle visible in the tools that now let sites block AI crawlers by default.
The sticking point is consent. Rolling out an expanded use of personal media as an on-by-default setting, wrapped in the language of user control, is exactly the pattern privacy advocates warn about. One expert has urged people to think hard before leaving it on, noting how revealing a single photo or voice search can be. Google keeps folding AI deeper into its products, from search results to one-click Gemini shortcuts in Chrome, and each step widens the pool of personal data in play. The opt-out is real. It just asks you to go find it.
Written by Alius Noreika
