>Except that Google exempts itself from those privacy controls, if you use a Google product.
No it doesn't. Google takes privacy issues very seriously just like security issues. You can disable Google storing your web activity in your account's privacy settings here.
Nope. Google "reads" all your data and saves it to push ads & suggested content to you.
I know this because Google read my emails (AFAIK there's no toggle to disable tracking on this product) and suggested me a video based on the contents of one of my emails. Mind you, I wasn't even logged in on YouTube at the time.
YouTube recommendations are only based off your activity on YouTube. Google doesn't even read your emails for ad targeting. Your anecdote was just confirmation bias.
The suggested video was too specific to be just an anecdote. YouTube doesn't need an account nor cookies to show you videos. They know you if your browser is fingerprintable enough.
Where ‘privacy’ is defined as ‘giving you control over who Google shared your data with’, of course.