wired.com web signal June 24th 2026

Google Rolls Out Default-On 'Search Services History' — Lens, Voice, and Live Search Inputs Now Feed AI Training Unless Users Opt Out

google privacy ai-data-collection google-search

Summary

Google began rolling out 'Search Services History,' an opt-out-by-default setting that saves users' images, audio recordings, Lens visual searches, and Search Live transcripts and uses them to train its AI models, with notification emails sent to users on June 23, 2026. The new control is separate from existing Web and App Activity settings — users who had already disabled that toggle will have Search Services History off by default, but new users must manually disable 'Save Media' to prevent their search inputs from feeding AI training. Privacy experts warn the feature captures biometric-adjacent data including voice and facial imagery and potentially exposes stored search queries to law enforcement requests.

Shared on Bluesky by 3 AI experts

Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app: “Google is clear that it's starting to store much more than just what you type into Search. ‘Your saved media includes your images, files, a… →
Reece @thiccreese.bsky.social: A little piece of my soul shrivels up every time I get a message laying out how another company plans to use personal data in ever encroachi… →
Pavel @spavel.bsky.social amplified

Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app

“Google is clear that it's starting to store much more than just what you type into Search. ‘Your saved media includes your images, files, and audio and video recordings from your interactions with Search services,’ read…
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Originally reported by wired.com

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Original headline: Google Rolls Out Default-On 'Search Services History' — Lens, Voice, and Live Search Inputs Now Feed AI Training Unless Users Opt Out