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Burstar1 t1_jd2u7uy wrote

Reply to comment by Mission-Simple-5040 in ELI5: Why does Google offer all these free services like Google Docs, Sheets, Drive, Sites, Forms, etc. without any ads on them? How does Google benefit from this and why do they invest so much in creating and maintaining them? by Elena_Edie

All the information it is possible to glean or infer from a file outside its actual contents. Things like:

File type, size, time and frequency of use (importance), the IP address/location of the user and anyone it has been shared with, the language it uses, etc...

Without even a database of all your data, it is possible to look at a large spreadsheet file and make an educated guess whether or not it is an important file whose user is educated, Western (based on language preference) and likely middle-aged (Excel vs. Google Spreadsheet), who is using it for budgeting or database purposes (based on size and frequency of use).

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