# Google can access "our" stuff and sell data on it, right? **URL:** https://discuss.privacyguides.net/t/google-can-access-our-stuff-and-sell-data-on-it-right/15311 **Category:** Questions **Created:** 2023-12-01T01:59:11Z **Posts:** 9 ## Post 1 by @nunyabeez — 2023-12-01T01:59:11Z If I used Sheets for a budgeting service (Tiller), should I assume whatever financial transactions go into Sheets, Google will pull and sell the data? (I do my best to limit the information companies can mine from me, but I’m okay with making exceptions for stuff that might be valuable to me.) --- ## Post 2 by @pinkandwhite — 2023-12-01T02:03:45Z Can they physically access it? I mean sure. Do they? Probably not, they say in their privacy policy they do not use the contents of your google drive (which includes sheets/docs/etc) for advertising purposes --- ## Post 3 by @Valynor — 2023-12-01T02:04:26Z Google probably will not outright sell your data but they will likely data mine everything that can be derived from it and present you appropriate ads (for which other companies pay Google). That is their whole business model after all. --- ## Post 4 by @Reset0609 — 2023-12-01T02:24:24Z > [@pinkandwhite](#): > > for advertising purposes Maybe for some AI training? To sell to third parties? --- ## Post 5 by @Valynor — 2023-12-01T02:29:02Z I looked it up, Google says: > Google Docs, Sheets, & Slides doesn’t use your content for advertising > We don’t use information in apps where you primarily store personal content—including Google Docs, Sheets, & Slides—for advertising purposes, period. Of course there might be some loopholes in that, e.g. what if you don’t store _personal content_ in these app but e.g. business data. Also they say they are not using it for “advertising purposes” but that leaves room for _other_ uses, too. --- ## Post 6 by @pinkandwhite — 2023-12-01T02:50:53Z Yeah, and besides the loopholes that could be used, they certainly would not just sell the data outright, their business model is having data to target ads with – selling it outright would mean they lose the one thing that gets people to buy ads with them --- ## Post 7 by @anon73250778 — 2023-12-01T04:17:32Z They don’t use your content for advertising, but they could use the content for improving their algorithms _for advertising_. What is important is what are they _not saying_, rather than what they are saying. This is a big company and you really should be wary if they are actually dealing with you in “good faith”. Their advertising business model is successful enough, lets put it that way. --- ## Post 8 by @jonah — 2023-12-01T06:16:26Z And Google and other big tech companies would of course _never_ lie in their privacy policies, _no siree!_ * * * - [Google Will Pay $22.5 Million to Settle FTC Charges it Misrepresented Privacy Assurances to Users of Apple's Safari Internet Browser | Federal Trade Commission](https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2012/08/google-will-pay-225-million-settle-ftc-charges-it-misrepresented-privacy-assurances-users-apples) - [FTC Approves Google Buzz Settlement | PCWorld](https://www.pcworld.com/article/477636/ftc_approves_google_buzz_settlement-2.html) - [Google to pay California $93 million for allegedly lying to users about location data practices | The Record from Recorded Future News](https://therecord.media/google-settles-for-lying-geolocation) - [Google facing new privacy probe over Street View cars 'data theft' as it is alleged to have misled watchdog | Daily Mail Online](https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2158307/Google-facing-new-privacy-probe-Street-View-cars-data-theft-alleged-misled-watchdog.html) --- ## Post 9 by @nunyabeez — 2023-12-01T18:59:28Z Would it be worth it to create a separate Google account to use the Tiller service? Will that limit the “hit” my personal account takes? Or is that too much trouble because it is what it is at this point?