The blog Android Authority offers this TLDR: Google updated its privacy policy to clarify that it could use information shared through Personal Intelligence to personalize ads. Gmail, Drive, and Photos content isn't used for targeted ads by default, but connecting them to eligible Google services could change that. Digital Trends explains: Google has long promised that your Gmail, Drive, and Google Photos content never helps it personalize ads. However, since October 16, 2026, its privacy policy adds a catch. The promise lapses if you let other ad-showing Google services use that content. That means using Personal Intelligence, an opt-in tool that lets Google's AI search read your connected apps, does exactly that (via Google). If you ask Google's AI Mode where to eat near your hotel, and it can identify your hotel from the booking confirmation in Gmail, find the location in Maps, and then suggest a few places you might like. That's the helpful half. The twist, however, is that AI Mode can also show sponsored results. Google mentions that the personalized ads follow what the question and answer are about. So, while your inbox never goes to an advertiser, it can quietly shape the answer, which, in turn, shapes the ads. Google's defense is elaborate. First, it says connecting the apps is optional. Second, advertisers can't see the information or content Google accesses in your Workspace apps (including your inbox and photos). Finally, sensitive topics like health are off-limits. Ars Technica shares the response they got from a Google spokesperson: that Google isn't scanning your entire inbox to feed their advertising profiles, but if you choose to pipe your personal data into an AI search tool — then the ads Google shows you could be based on that information. If you want to ensure ads never use your personal data in this way, you'll need to make sure Personal Intelligence is turned off. The easiest way is to access the Gemini settings for Personal Intelligence and disable the connected apps. These settings are also a few levels deep in your main Google account settings under Data & privacy > Personalization settings > Manage Personalized Recommendations in Search Services > Connected Content Apps. From there, you can disable connections to Workspace and Google Photos.

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Polymarket has drawn criticism on X after a photo of its fortune-cookie advertisement attracted more than 500,000 views. Jared Holt shared the image in an Oct. 24 post, showing a purple promotional slip held beside an opened fortune cookie. “Yes,…

Using Google's products and services has always been fundamentally precarious—doing so gives the world's largest advertising company a lot of juicy personal data. Google has long said it won't use the sensitive data from products like Gmail, Drive, and Photos for ad personalization, but a change to the company's privacy policy appears to dismantle that firewall.

On October 16, Google issued an update to its privacy policy, spotted by Android Authority. The ad personalization section used to include a clear limit on data from certain apps. "We don’t show you personalized ads based on your content from Drive, Gmail, or Photos," the document said. Now, Google has updated it with the following language.

Updated language on when your sensitive data might inform ads. Credit: Google

This equivocation opens the door to using data from apps like Gmail and Photos in ads when it's shared with other Google services, and it just so happens Google has a mechanism for doing that, with Personal Intelligence. The company released Personal Intelligence in early 2026, allowing users to hand data from multiple apps to Google AI products. The idea is that the added context from your existing data will lead to better AI answers, but it's also proving to be a privacy minefield.

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TL;DR: Google’s updated rules for UAE-targeted crypto exchange and wallet ads took effect October 21. Advertisers need an accepted local license and Google certification; the policy is not blanket permission for all crypto promotions.

Crypto exchanges and software-wallet providers targeting customers in the United Arab Emirates now face the licensing and certification conditions set out in Google’s updated advertising policy.

The change took effect on October 21, according to Google’s official policy notice. This is the implementation date of an earlier announcement, rather than a newly issued rule on Wednesday.

For the crypto exchange and software-wallet category, Google lists four accepted authorities: the Capital Market Authority, Dubai Financial Services Authority, Financial Services Regulatory Authority and Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority. Advertisers also need certification from Google.

A License And An Ad Approval Are Separate Steps

A financial-services authorization and permission to distribute an advertisement answer different questions. The first concerns the business’s regulated activities. The second concerns whether a particular platform will carry its marketing under that platform’s rules.

The updated notice links those processes but does not merge them. Possessing a license does not, on its own, establish that an advertiser has completed Google’s certification process.

Equally, a reader encountering an ad should not treat its appearance as an assurance about investment returns or a guarantee against loss. Advertising eligibility concerns access to the marketing channel; it is not an assessment of every transaction a customer might make afterward.

For firms, the operational consequences sit with campaign preparation. A company needs its authorization and certification details to match the service it is promoting and the jurisdiction it is targeting. Marketing teams cannot safely infer that eligibility in one market automatically carries over to another.

The notice also discusses other financial-product categories. Those should not be collapsed into one universal crypto rule: the license list above is the one Google provides specifically for cryptocurrency exchanges and software wallets targeting the UAE.

The immediate change is therefore precise. Eligible providers have an updated route to advertising access, with a local licensing requirement and a separate platform certification requirement attached.

Related Reading

• Twitter Joins Facebook and Google in Banning Crypto Advertising
• Why Google is Removing All Bitcoin Mining Apps on the Play Store
• Block Takes Bitcoin Mainstream With First Major Consumer Ad Campaign

This article was written by the News Desk and edited by Samuel Rae.

OpenAI expands ChatGPT Ads to 89 markets, adding 26 new locations. Here's who can advertise, eligibility rules, and targeting restrictions.

The post ChatGPT Ads Expand to 89 Countries — But Who Can Actually Advertise? appeared first on TechRepublic.

OpenAI expands ChatGPT Ads to 89 markets, adding 26 new locations. Here's who can advertise, eligibility rules, and targeting restrictions.

The post ChatGPT Ads Expand to 89 Countries — But Who Can Actually Advertise? appeared first on TechRepublic.

Citizen Lab says it has documented the first publicly confirmed case of zero-click mercenary spyware being delivered through targeted online ads, a technique it calls "AdFection." "There has been a lot of buzz that online ads can be used to identify and automatically hack targets with pinpoint precision, but now for the first time, we have concrete technical evidence showing this process in action," said Bill Marczak, a researcher at Citizen Lab. The Guardian reports: Citizen Lab, a digital investigations research unit at the University of Toronto, said it believed dozens of devices at the Qatari broadcaster Al Jazeera had been compromised by spyware delivered through ads run by Discover-Tech, which describes itself as a specialised digital advertising agency. According to Citizen Lab, Discover-Tech operates a software platform called Controlium that allows its clients to "mass-profile and deanonymize" internet users then covertly hack targets with third-party spyware. Unlike infections that rely on people interacting with links or files, the spyware requires no interaction from the victim to be installed, making it a new delivery technique, Citizen Lab says. The infections happen without a user's knowledge, and in a matter of seconds, according to Citizen Lab. "[The online advertising] ecosystem is being weaponized at a massive scale to profile millions of users, then silently infect targets with zero-click mercenary spyware," the report says. According to the report, Controlium is able to harvest a user's identity and IP address when the user is shown a seemingly benign custom-created ad -- for example, for a digital game or a telecoms service. If the user has been selected as a target for hacking, a mercenary spyware firm can then send a malicious code containing spyware to their device, the researchers say. They say that millions of users worldwide have been served ads by Discover-Tech since 2024, including in Yemen, Brazil, Mexico and Czechia. [...] The full extent of the targeting allegedly enabled by Discover-Tech is unknown. Citizen Lab's findings join mounting evidence that the opaque arrangements underpinning the world of online advertising can be leveraged for surveillance.

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The digital rights unit found evidence that dozens of devices at media organization Al Jazeera were hacked after being shown malicious online ads.