The AdWords policy for prohibited applies to Gmail ads.

Prohibited practices

The AdWords policy for prohibited practices applies to Gmail ads.

Abuse of the ad network

We want ads to be useful, varied, relevant, and safe for users when serving them across the Google Network. As a result, we don't allow any of the following:

• malicious ads, sites, or apps
• ads promoting sites or apps that offer little unique value to users and are focused primarily on traffic generation
• businesses that attempt to gain an unfair advantage in the ad auction
• businesses that attempt to bypass our review processes

All of our policies are crafted to protect a high-quality user experience, and we've built enforcement systems and processes to prevent ads that fall below these standards from serving. We take any attempts to trick or circumvent our ad review processes very seriously, so play fair.

Examples of abuse of the ad network: promoting content that contains malware; "cloaking" or using other techniques to hide the true destination that users are directed to; "arbitrage" or promoting destinations for the sole or primary purpose of showing ads; promoting "bridge" or "gateway" destinations that are solely designed to send users elsewhere; advertising with the sole or primary intent of gaining public social network endorsements from the user; "gaming" or manipulating settings in an attempt to circumvent our policy review systems

Irresponsible data collection & use

We want users to trust that information about them will be respected and handled with appropriate care. As such, our advertising partners should not misuse this information, nor collect it for unclear purposes or without appropriate security measures.

Examples of user information that should be handled with care: full name; email address; mailing address; phone number; national identity, pension, social security, tax ID, health care, or driver's license number; birth date or mother's maiden name in addition to any of the above information; financial status; political affiliation; sexual orientation; race or ethnicity; religion

Examples of irresponsible data collection & use: obtaining credit card information over a non-secure server, promotions that claim to know a user's sexual orientation or financial status, violations of our policies that apply to interest-based advertising and remarketing

Misrepresentation of self, product, or service

We don't want users to feel misled by ads that we deliver, and that means being upfront, honest, and providing them with the information that they need to make informed decisions. For this reason, we don't allow the following:

• promotions that prompt users to initiate a purchase, download, or other commitment without first providing all relevant information and obtaining the user's explicit consent
• promotions that represent you, your products, or your services in a way that is not accurate, realistic, and truthful

Examples of misrepresentation: omitting or obscuring billing details such as how, what, and when users will be charged; omitting or obscuring charges associated with financial services such as interest rates, fees, and penalties; failing to display tax or licence numbers, contact information, or physical address where relevant; making offers that aren't actually available; making misleading or unrealistic claims regarding weight loss or financial gain; collecting donations under false pretenses; "phishing" or falsely purporting to be a reputable company in order to get users to part with valuable personal or financial information

for details