Incident #977078 · 12 OCT 2026notable
Google Maps privacy policy adds 'across devices' to signed-out ad wording and expands law-enforcement disclosure text
The signed-out data section now says preferences and ads may be based on your activity 'across devices', and adds a sentence that Google also collects and uses data not associated with your account. The legal-basis table adds wording on disclosing limited data to law enforcement to prevent, detect or investigate crimes, and on disclosing data to law enforcement to prevent an imminent threat to life. Regulator/researcher sharing and age verification were already in the old text, so those parts are not new.
Taken from you
- Signed-out ad and search personalization may now draw on your activity across devices, not just one browser or device
- The legal-basis table now explicitly mentions disclosing limited data to law enforcement to prevent, detect or investigate crimes, and disclosing data to law enforcement to prevent an imminent threat to life.
Evidence · 4 of 4 quotes matched in source
This allows us to do things like maintain your preferences across browsing sessions, such as your preferred language or whether to show you more relevant search results or ads based on your activity across devices.+ inserted · ✓ matched in source
Google also collects and uses data that is not associated with your account.+ inserted · ✓ matched in source
Certain laws require us to share information with regulators and third parties, such as researchers and authorized out-of-court dispute bodies.+ inserted · ✓ matched in source
Various laws and regulations require us to put in place measures to confirm that our users are old enough to use our services.+ inserted · ✓ matched in source
Archived version ↗ · 626 words changed