Google launched a beta feature on January 14 that prompts users to hand over access to their Gmail, photos, search history, YouTube viewing habits, and other personal data in exchange for more tailored AI responses.

Josh Woodward, VP of Google Labs, Gemini, and AI Studio, announced the “Personal Intelligence” feature for U.S.-based Google AI Pro and AI Ultra subscribers. The tool connects Gemini to a user’s Google services, allowing the AI to pull information from emails, calendar appointments, Drive documents, Maps history, and shopping searches when answering questions.

Google says the feature is disabled by default, and users must manually enable it through Settings and can choose which apps Gemini accesses. However, commentators have noted that similar AI features launched by Google in the past have included numerous notifications and pop-ups attempting to push users to enable the features.

The company claims Gemini does not train directly on Gmail inboxes or photo libraries. However, Google does train on user prompts and Gemini’s responses to those prompts, filtered to remove personal information.

“In short, we don’t train our systems to learn your license plate number; we train them to understand that when you ask for one, we can locate it.” Woodward wrote in a blog post announcing the feature.

Despite being upfront about the opt-in requirement, Google’s privacy track record gives critics pause.

The company’s own Gemini privacy page discloses that human reviewers, including outside contractors, assess some of the data collected through the AI. Google cautions users against sharing anything they wouldn’t want a person to read.

Google has also faced repeated privacy enforcement actions, including a $68 million settlement over Google Assistant recordings made without user consent and a $1.375 billion Texas settlement over illegal collection of private biometric and location data.

The company also acknowledges other limitations. Gemini may produce inaccurate responses and “struggles with timing and nuance, particularly regarding relationship changes, like divorces,” according to Google’s documentation.

The feature processes data in Google’s cloud rather than on user devices, a contrast to Apple’s approach with Apple Intelligence, which prioritizes on-device processing.

Google frames its cloud-based model as an advantage. “Because this data already lives at Google securely, you don’t have to send sensitive data elsewhere to start personalizing your experience,” the company said.

Personal Intelligence will expand to free-tier users and additional countries later in 2026. Whether such tools stay optional for long remains to be seen.