AI
How to Opt Out of Google Search's New AI Data Training Feature
Google is rolling out a new setting that automatically saves your search history, images, and voice recordings for AI training—here's how to disable it.
WIRED — AI
Google is quietly expanding its use of user data for AI training. The company is rolling out a new feature called Search Services History that automatically captures and retains images, audio, video, and files from your searches—including reverse image searches, Google Lens, voice queries, and recordings from Search Live and Translate—and funnels them into its AI models.
How to opt out#
When the feature reaches your account, head to Google's My Activity page and select the Search Services History tab. You'll find a checkbox labeled Save media—uncheck it if you don't want your uploads used for AI training. The toggle can be turned off entirely if you prefer.
The catch: once your saved media is fed into Google's AI training pipeline, it gets disconnected from your account and can persist for up to four years, even after you delete the original activity.
The opt-out trap#
This follows a familiar pattern across tech platforms: features are turned on by default, shifting the burden to users to discover and disable them. As security and privacy experts note, this approach creates friction—users either miss the settings buried in their account pages or simply grow exhausted by constant opt-out decisions across multiple services.
Google framed the rollout as giving users "more control," but industry observers argue the company should instead require explicit opt-in for data training uses. "Asking their users to consciously choose to enable these features is the least they can do," says Thorin Klosowski, a senior security and privacy activist at the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
The deeper issue: as these data collection changes multiply across platforms, many users face what experts call "privacy nihilism"—a sense of powerlessness that makes compliance feel futile.
