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The policy authorizes Google to link activity across its own services and across user devices, and to associate activity on third-party sites and apps with a user's personal information for advertising and service improvement purposes, subject to account settings.
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This provision establishes that Google's advertising personalization system operates across services and devices and may incorporate third-party site activity into a user's personal data profile, depending on account settings. The scope of this linkage has been subject to regulatory scrutiny under GDPR, and the degree to which settings-based controls satisfy applicable consent or legitimate interest requirements may vary by jurisdiction.
The updated policy makes several material clarifications about how Google links your activity across websites and apps. It shifts from describing analytics tools in isolation to framing them as part of a broader 'ad and analytics services' ecosystem, and broadens the scope of data linking to explicitly include 'cookies and other technologies'. The policy also clarifies that data sharing occurs even in private browsing modes. Review your Google Account activity controls to understand what data is being collected and linked across services you use.
View change record →Under this clause, activity across Google services and third-party sites using Google products may be linked to a user's personal information and used for ad targeting. The agreement provides settings-based controls to limit this linkage, accessible through My Ad Center and Web and App Activity settings.
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"We may use the information we collect across our services and across your devices for the purposes described above. For example, depending on your available settings, if you watch videos of guitar players on YouTube, you might see an ad for guitar lessons on a site that uses our ad products. Depending on your account settings, your activity on other sites and apps may be associated with your personal information in order to improve Google's services and the ads delivered by Google.Excerpt from YouTube Ads's Google Privacy Policy
1. REGULATORY LANDSCAPE: This provision implicates GDPR Articles 5, 6, and 7 regarding lawful basis, data minimization, and consent for personal data processing, enforced by EU data protection authorities. It also engages CCPA and enumerated U.S. state privacy laws regarding targeted advertising opt-out rights. The assertion that third-party site activity may be associated with personal information may require evaluation under GDPR to confirm the legal basis asserted for this processing in jurisdiction-specific terms. 2. GOVERNANCE EXPOSURE: High. Cross-service data linkage for advertising is among the most scrutinized data practices under GDPR and U.S. state privacy laws. The provision's conditionality on account settings means the compliance posture depends materially on whether those settings mechanisms satisfy applicable consent standards in each jurisdiction. 3. JURISDICTION FLAGS: EU/EEA users face heightened exposure given GDPR consent and legitimate interest requirements. California residents have CCPA opt-out rights for targeted advertising. Users in states with enacted comprehensive privacy laws (Virginia, Colorado, Connecticut, and others listed in the policy) have similar opt-out rights. The provision's application to signed-out users through unique identifiers may require separate analysis under cookie consent frameworks in the EU. 4. CONTRACT AND VENDOR IMPLICATIONS: Organizations that use Google Analytics or AdSense on their websites become parties to data sharing arrangements described in this provision. Procurement teams should assess whether their use of Google advertising or analytics services requires updates to their own privacy disclosures, data processing agreements, or consent mechanisms under applicable law. 5. COMPLIANCE CONSIDERATIONS: Compliance teams should audit whether the settings-based controls offered (My Ad Center, Web and App Activity) satisfy the opt-out and consent withdrawal mechanisms required under applicable state and federal frameworks. Data mapping should reflect that third-party site activity may flow into Google's personal data profile for a user. EU-facing operations should confirm the legal basis documented for this processing in Google's GDPR-specific disclosures.
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This provision establishes that Google's advertising personalization system operates across services and devices and may incorporate third-party site activity into a user's personal data profile, depending on account settings. The scope of this linkage has been subject to regulatory scrutiny under GDPR, and the degree to which settings-based controls satisfy applicable consent or legitimate interest requirements may vary by jurisdiction.
Under this clause, activity across Google services and third-party sites using Google products may be linked to a user's personal information and used for ad targeting. The agreement provides settings-based controls to limit this linkage, accessible through My Ad Center and Web and App Activity settings.
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