7 Google Settings to Change Right Now to Stop AI From Accessing Your Personal Data

Google’s AI, including its Gemini models, is being baked into more of its services every few months. Search, Gmail, YouTube, Chrome, and Android all feed data into these systems — to train them, to recommend content, and to personalize your experience. The problem is that many of these data pipelines are turned on by default, and most users never touch the settings.

A recent article from PCMag outlines exactly how much data Google’s AI can access and, more importantly, which settings you can change to limit that access. Below is a practical guide based on that reporting. The steps should still work as of mid‑2026, but Google occasionally rearranges its menus, so check the official support pages if you get stuck.

What Happened

Google has been gradually merging its AI tools (Bard, now Gemini) into core products. The company’s privacy policy allows it to use data from your activity across Gmail, Search, YouTube, and your phone’s location to improve its AI models and tailor features. PCMag’s piece highlights that the default data collection is broad, but that users can opt out of the most intrusive parts through seven key settings.

Why This Matters

If you use Google services regularly, your search history, voice commands, location logs, and even some email content are available to Google’s AI for training and personalization. That might be fine for some people, but others prefer not to have their everyday digital life fed into a machine‑learning model. The good news: you don’t have to stop using Gmail or YouTube to regain control. The settings exist; they’re just buried.

Seven Settings to Adjust

Below are the controls to change, listed roughly from most to least impactful. Each one removes a type of data from Google’s AI pipeline without breaking the core service.

1. Turn Off Web & App Activity
This is the big one. Google uses your search and browsing history, app usage, and website visits to personalize search results and train its AI.

  • Go to myactivity.google.com.
  • Click on “Activity controls.”
  • Turn off “Web & App Activity.”
  • You’ll be asked if you want to pause it. Confirm. Your history will stop being saved from that point. Old history stays unless you delete it manually.

2. Disable Location History
Your phone’s precise location can be used by Google’s AI for features like traffic alerts, but also for profile building.

  • In your Google Account, go to “Data & privacy” → “Location History.”
  • Turn it off.
  • On Android, you can also go to Settings → Location → Google Location History to turn it off at the device level.

3. Stop Voice & Audio Activity
If you use “Hey Google” or voice search, Google saves recordings of your voice. These can be used to improve speech recognition models.

  • In your Google Account, go to “Data & privacy” → “Voice & Audio Activity.”
  • Turn it off.
  • In the Google app on your phone, go to More → Settings → Voice → Voice Match and toggle off “While driving” or “Hey Google” if you want to stop new recordings entirely.

4. Limit YouTube History
YouTube uses your watch and search history to recommend videos. That data also feeds into Google’s broader AI profile.

  • On YouTube, click your profile picture → “Manage all history.”
  • Turn off “Watch history” (new watching won’t be saved).
  • You can also turn off “Search history.”
  • Note: Turning off watch history will stop personalized recommendations.

5. Turn Off Ad Personalization
This reduces the AI’s ability to profile you for ads, but it also limits how Google uses your data for other personalization.

  • In your Google Account, go to “Data & privacy” → “Ad personalization.”
  • Toggle it off.
  • You’ll see a list of interests; you can delete them.

6. Disable Google Assistant AI Data Sharing
The Assistant saves your conversations and uses them to improve itself.

  • Open the Google app or Assistant settings on your phone.
  • Go to “Google Assistant” → “Your data in the Assistant.”
  • Turn off “Voice and Audio Activity” (if you haven’t already) and review “Learn from your interactions.”

7. Manage Gemini App Permissions
If you use the standalone Gemini app (or Gemini in Google messages), check what data it can see.

  • In the Gemini app, tap your profile → “Settings” → “Privacy.”
  • Turn off “Chat history” saving and uncheck any data categories you don’t want shared (like Google Calendar or Maps data).

A Few Caveats

These settings stop new data from being used for AI training. Google may still use data collected before you changed them, so consider also deleting past activity (available in the same myactivity dashboard). Also, some features — like smart replies in Gmail or Google Photos’ search by keyword — may become less accurate when you turn off certain logs. That’s the trade‑off.

Google updates its settings pages occasionally, so if a link doesn’t work, search for the setting name directly in your Google Account or device settings. The official Google Privacy & Terms page has the most current details.

Sources

The information in this guide is based on the PCMag article “Google’s AI Has Access to More Than You Think. Change These 7 Settings Now to Protect Your Privacy” (published July 15, 2026). Additional verification was done using Google’s current privacy controls as of mid‑2026. Settings paths may vary slightly by region and device.