What they may do · DPDP §6(4)
What Gmail does with your data
Gmail runs under Google's privacy policy, which states plainly that your Gmail content is not used for personalised ads. Your wider Google activity still feeds ad profiling, its ad and analytics services link you across other sites, and some data is retained longer.
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Shares your data with partners
Passed to group companies, advertisers or analytics firms you never chose.
What this costs you. Your number and habits travel to companies you have never heard of and never agreed to. This is the step where the spam calls start.
Show me where they say that
Gmail’s own policy says “We provide personal information to our affiliates and other trusted businesses or persons to process it for us, based on our instructions and in compliance with our Privacy Policy and any other appropriate confidentiality and security measures.”
Our summary provides personal information to affiliates and other trusted businesses to process for Google.
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Builds an advertising profile of you
They watch what you view, tap and buy, and use it to decide which ads you see.
What this costs you. Your attention gets priced. What you hesitate over becomes a bid — and a profile built to predict you is a profile built to persuade you.
Show me where they say that
Gmail’s own policy says “Depending on your settings, we may also show you personalised ads based on your interests and activity across Google services. ... We do not show you personalised ads based on your content from Drive, Gmail, or Photos.”
Our summary personalised ads come from your activity across Google services, and it states in terms that Gmail content is not used for them.
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Follows you onto other websites and apps
Their tracking carries on after you leave, through pixels and SDKs embedded elsewhere.
What this costs you. You get recognised on sites that have nothing to do with them. Closing the app does not close the file.
Show me where they say that
Gmail’s own policy says “When you visit sites or use apps that use Google’s ad or analytics services, those services may link information about your activity from that site or app with activity from other sites or apps that use our services.”
Our summary Google ad and analytics services on other sites and apps may link that activity with activity elsewhere.
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Keeps your records long-term
Held on after you stop using the service.
What this costs you. Years after you delete the app, the record is still sitting there — and every year it sits there is another year it can leak.
Show me where they say that
Gmail’s own policy says “And some data we retain for longer periods of time when necessary for legitimate business or legal purposes, such as security, fraud and abuse prevention, or financial record-keeping.”
Our summary some data is retained for longer periods for security, fraud prevention or financial record-keeping.
What the policy does not mention
These are uses Gmail’s policy is silent on. Silence is not a promise — it means the document does not say, and we do not infer either way.
- Processes your face or other biometrics
- Trains AI models on your content
Gmail is one app. How many are on your phone?
Most people carry twenty to forty. Add yours and see the total in one screen — how many share your data, profile you for ads, or follow you across the web. Then take it back from all of them at once.
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Questions
What does Gmail do with my personal data?
According to Gmail's own privacy policy, read on 2026-08-13, it discloses 4 of the six uses we track: shares your data with partners, builds an advertising profile of you, follows you onto other websites and apps, keeps your records long-term.
Can I withdraw my consent from Gmail?
Section 6(4) of India's Digital Personal Data Protection Act 2023 gives you the right to withdraw consent for processing you agreed to. The Act's substantive provisions commence in stages up to May 2027, so a request made now asks for voluntary compliance and puts the date on record. Processing a company carries out under a legal obligation — such as KYC records the RBI requires — cannot be withdrawn.
Does Gmail track me for advertising?
Yes — Gmail's published policy discloses this. The exact sentence it is based on is quoted on this page, with the date we read it and a link to the source.
Every use above is one Gmail declared in its own published privacy policy, which we
read on 2026-08-13. Quotes are verbatim; the summary beside each one is ours
and is labelled as ours. Nothing here is inferred.
Saaph.in is a DPDP consent and request management platform operated by Ronin Works
Private Limited. It is a communication facilitator, not your legal or authorised
representative. The DPDP Act 2023 commences in stages up to May 2027, so a request
made today asks for voluntary compliance and records the date you asked.
Our privacy policy