Google ads often look at the content of a page to try and figure out what type of add to display. I've been on many forums where people will see if they can alter the type of ads shown by including specific words.
If you'll notice from the link Photon posted, "Ads in Gmail are placed in the same way that ads are placed alongside Google search results and,..."
So this response is saying the ads you are seeing while you are looking at your Gmail are related to the content on the page, in this case, your GMail emails.
I don't think they will track GMail users across the internet to display appropriate ads.
Google does keep track of all the searches that are done, and what ip address these are coming from, and they have released this information to police before when directly required to by subpoena. I can think of one case where a person was charged with murder based on this evidence (note to self - don't google how to commit murder then follow up using the results).
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