Is Google reading your inbox to sell you things?

Does Google use my Gmail to target ads?

For years the short answer has been no, not directly. Google stopped scanning the contents of personal Gmail messages to target ads in 2017, and it still says it does not use your email, documents or photos to personalise ads in the usual way.

The picture gets murkier once you start connecting things. Google’s newer features, Gemini above all, work by pulling information from across your account. Your bookings and receipts in Gmail, the files in Drive and the faces and places in Photos all become material an assistant can use. Every time you link a service to one of these features, you give Google another way to build a picture of you. And Google’s privacy policy has always been clear that your activity across its services can shape the ads you see.

So the question is not really whether a person at Google reads your emails. Nobody does. The question is what you have allowed to be joined up, and whether the ad machine sits at the end of that pipe. You can check both.

How do I turn off personalised ads on Google?

Start with My Ad Center, Google’s control panel for advertising. You’ll find it in your Google Account under Data and privacy, or by tapping the three dots next to almost any Google ad and choosing My Ad Center.

At the top is a single switch marked Personalised ads. Turn it off and Google stops using your account data to choose ads for you. You will still see ads, just as many of them, but they will be based on general things such as the page you are looking at or your rough location, not on a profile of you. Think less tailored suit, more off-the-peg.

If you would rather keep some personalisation, the same page lists the topics and brands Google thinks you like. You can delete the wrong guesses, and there is plenty of comedy in what it has decided about you. You can also limit ads on sensitive subjects such as gambling, alcohol and weight loss, which is worth doing for many people whether or not they care about privacy.

One catch: the setting belongs to your Google Account, not your device. Check you are signed in to the right account, and repeat the exercise for any second account you use for work, the football club or that eBay habit you would rather not discuss.

Nobody at Google is reading your emails. The real question is what you have allowed to be joined up.

The Gmail, Drive and Photos settings that matter

The next stop is Gmail’s smart features. These are what make Gmail sort receipts into folders, show flight details at the top of an email and offer autocomplete when you type. In the UK, Google asks you to choose whether to switch them on, and plenty of people clicked yes years ago without a second thought.

In Gmail on a computer, click the cog, then See all settings, and scroll down the General tab. There are two settings to look at. The first covers smart features in Gmail, Chat and Meet. The second, Google Workspace smart features, decides whether data from Gmail, Drive and your other Workspace apps can be used to personalise other Google products, such as Maps, Wallet and the Assistant. If you want to keep your inbox in its own box, the second is the one to switch off. You can keep the useful in-Gmail features and still stop the data spreading.

Then look at Gemini. In the Gemini app or on the website, open Settings and look at Apps, which Google used to call Extensions. This lists the services Gemini is allowed to reach, such as Gmail, Drive, Photos, YouTube and Maps. Turn off any you do not actively use. Asking an AI to find your car insurance renewal date is handy. Giving it standing access to fifteen years of family photos so you can do it is a bigger trade than it first looks.

While you are there, check Gemini Apps Activity. It controls whether your conversations are saved to your account and, depending on your settings, whether they can be used to improve Google’s services.

Finally, go to Data and privacy in your Google Account and look at Web and App Activity, Location History (which Google now calls Timeline) and YouTube History. These are the raw materials for much of Google’s personalisation. You can pause each one, or set an automatic deletion after 3, 18 or 36 months. For most people, auto-delete is the sensible middle way: Google stays useful without keeping a record of everything you searched for in 2014.

What rights do I have under UK GDPR?

Plenty, and they are stronger than many people realise. Under UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018, any company holding your personal data has to be clear about what it does with it and needs a lawful reason to do it. The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK’s data protection regulator, enforces those rules.

The most useful right here is the right to object to direct marketing. It is absolute: if you object to your data being used for marketing, the company has to stop. No ifs, no balancing act. In practice, the ad settings above are the quickest way to use that right with Google, but it is good to know it is the law and not a favour.

You also have the right of access, which means you can ask what data a company holds about you. Google makes this fairly painless with Google Takeout, which lets you download your data service by service. Fair warning: if you have used Gmail since the early days, the download can be big enough to need a pot of tea while you wait.

If you think a company is mishandling your data and it does not sort things out when you complain, you can take it to the ICO. The ICO expects you to raise the problem with the company first, so keep a record of what you sent and when. The same rules apply across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, because data protection is handled at UK level.

A sensible five-minute routine

You do not need to give up Google to get some control back. Once a year, perhaps when the clocks change, run Google’s Privacy Checkup from your Google Account. It walks you through most of the settings above in one go.

Decide what you actually want. If personalised ads bother you, switch them off. They are not doing you any favours. If you like Gmail’s tidy receipts but not the idea of your inbox shaping things elsewhere, keep the Gmail features on and switch off the Workspace link to other products. And treat any new AI feature that asks to connect to your mail and photos the way you would treat a new neighbour asking for a spare key. Possibly fine. Worth a moment’s thought first.

While you are tidying up, turn on two-step verification. A Google account that knows this much about you is well worth protecting properly, and the National Cyber Security Centre recommends it for your most important accounts.

In short

Google says it does not read your Gmail, Drive or Photos to target ads, but the more services you link, especially to features such as Gemini, the more Google can learn about you. In the UK you can switch off personalised ads in My Ad Center, stop Gmail and Workspace data reaching other Google products in Gmail’s settings, and limit which apps Gemini can reach. UK GDPR gives you an absolute right to object to direct marketing, and the ICO is there if a company will not listen.

Sources

• Google – My Ad Center, Google’s ad personalisation controls
• Google – Google Privacy Policy
• Information Commissioner’s Office – Guidance for the public on data protection rights
• Information Commissioner’s Office – How to make a data protection complaint
• National Cyber Security Centre – Advice on securing your online accounts