Google Ads is changing how first-party customer data is processed from October 19, 2026.
The biggest change is that customer data will no longer need to be pre-hashed using SHA-256. Instead, the data will be encrypted before being sent to Google and then decrypted and matched inside a Trusted Execution Environment (TEE).
The data processing terms and purpose remain the same, and this does not introduce a new data category or use case. Consent requirements also stay unchanged: Consent Mode v2, including ad_user_data and ad_personalization, still applies.
In short, this is mainly a technical change in how Google securely receives and matches customer data, rather than a change in how the data may be used. It is still worth checking with your legal or privacy team whether your privacy policy needs to be updated.
Thanks for sharing Thomas Eccel
