Google Saves Your Photos & Audio for AI Training

Google's June 2026 Privacy Change, Explained

Google updated its Search privacy settings in June 2026. The company split its existing "Web & App Activity" control into two separate settings. The new one is called Search Services History. It includes a "Save Media" toggle that is on by default.

That means images, audio, and video you upload or generate across Google's Search services are now being saved — and used to train AI — unless you turn it off manually.

Google confirmed this in an 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."

Which Google Products Are Affected?

The change goes beyond Google Search itself. Here is every service covered by the new setting:

• Google Lens — photos you snap to search visually
• Search Live — audio from Google's real-time AI voice search tool
• Voice Search — any voice query made through the Google app
• Google Translate — audio recorded when you speak phrases
• Google Maps, Shopping, Flights, Hotels, and News — activity across all these services

Search Live is Google's real-time voice search feature. It lets users search by speaking directly into the Google app.

How Google Uses Your Saved Media

Google's own help documentation says the company "uses your history to provide, develop, and improve its services (such as training generative AI models) and to protect Google, its users, and the public with the help of human reviewers."

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Some storage is temporary. It is tied to making the product work. But saved media can also be kept specifically to train AI models, per Google's own language.

The second new setting introduced alongside Search Services History is Personalized Recommendations. It controls how your activity shapes your Google experience and which ads you see.

Why This Matters If You Already Opted Out

We want to flag something that is easy to miss: if you previously adjusted your "Web & App Activity" settings to limit data retention, that change no longer covers your Search activity.

The two settings are now completely separate, as The Verge reported. Turning off Web & App Activity does not turn off Search Services History. You have to go into the new setting and make the change there independently.

Before the update, one toggle covered search-related interactions. Now there are two distinct controls. The new one defaults to on.

How to Opt Out: Your Options

Go to the Search Services History page at myactivity.google.com/search-services/settings and the Search Services Personalization page at google.com/search-personalization.

From there, you can also reach a broader privacy dashboard at myactivity.google.com/more-activity. It covers Web & App Activity, Timeline, YouTube History, and more.

Google Is Not Alone

This is part of a wider industry shift. Companies are moving away from relying only on web-scraped data. They are now collecting media that users actively upload or create when using consumer services.

Meta is doing the same thing at scale. It is training its AI on users' images and media, including content recorded by its Ray-Ban Meta AI glasses, as TechCrunch noted.

The BlackRock CEO's AI warning about power grid constraints shows just how resource-intensive these training pipelines are becoming. As AI systems demand more compute and data, companies face growing pressure to expand collection — and policy moves like this one are the result.

For anyone thinking about data governance as they scale, the AI power grid cost picture matters too. And broader questions about how tech policy shapes economic conditions — from US debt default risk to university PhD cuts affecting the AI research pipeline — all connect to how companies like Google are racing to build out their models now.

The most direct next step: visit the Search Services History settings page. Uncheck "Save Media" if you do not want your uploaded images, audio, and video used to train Google's generative AI models.