There are many different ways you can use our services – to
search for and share information, to communicate with other people or to
create new content. When you share information with us, for example by
creating a
Google Account,
we can make those services even better – to show you more relevant
search results and ads, to help you connect with people or to make
sharing with others quicker and easier. As you use our services, we want
you to be clear how we’re using information and the ways in which you
can protect your privacy.
Our Privacy Policy explains:
- What information we collect and why we collect it.
- How we use that information.
- The choices we offer, including how to access and update information.
We’ve tried to keep it as simple as possible, but if you’re not
familiar with terms like cookies, IP addresses, pixel tags and browsers,
then read about these
key terms
first. Your privacy matters to Google so whether you are new to Google
or a long-time user, please do take the time to get to know our
practices – and if you have any questions
contact us.
Information we collect
We collect information to provide better services to all of our users
– from figuring out basic stuff like which language you speak, to more
complex things like which ads you’ll find most useful or the people who
matter most to you online.
We collect information in two ways:
-
Information you give us. For example, many of our services require you to sign up for a Google Account. When you do, we’ll ask for personal information,
like your name, email address, telephone number or credit card. If you
want to take full advantage of the sharing features we offer, we might
also ask you to create a publicly visible Google Profile, which may include your name and photo.
-
Information we get from your use of our services. We
may collect information about the services that you use and how you use
them, like when you visit a website that uses our advertising services
or you view and interact with our ads and content. This information
includes:
-
Device information
We may collect device-specific information (such as your hardware
model, operating system version, unique device identifiers, and mobile
network information including phone number). Google may associate your
device identifiers or phone number with your Google Account.
-
Log information
When you use our services or view content provided by Google, we may automatically collect and store certain information in server logs. This may include:
- details of how you used our service, such as your search queries.
- telephony log information like your phone number, calling-party
number, forwarding numbers, time and date of calls, duration of calls,
SMS routing information and types of calls.
- Internet protocol address.
- device event information such as crashes, system activity,
hardware settings, browser type, browser language, the date and time of
your request and referral URL.
- cookies that may uniquely identify your browser or your Google Account.
-
Location information
When you use a location-enabled Google service, we may collect
and process information about your actual location, like GPS signals
sent by a mobile device. We may also use various technologies to
determine location, such as sensor data from your device that may, for
example, provide information on nearby Wi-Fi access points and cell
towers.
-
Unique application numbers
Certain services include a unique application number. This number
and information about your installation (for example, the operating
system type and application version number) may be sent to Google when
you install or uninstall that service or when that service periodically
contacts our servers, such as for automatic updates.
-
Local storage
We may collect and store information (including personal
information) locally on your device using mechanisms such as browser web
storage (including HTML 5) and application data caches.
-
Cookies and anonymous identifiers
We use various technologies to collect and store information when
you visit a Google service, and this may include sending one or more cookies or anonymous identifiers
to your device. We also use cookies and anonymous identifiers when you
interact with services we offer to our partners, such as advertising
services or Google features that may appear on other sites.
How we use information we collect
We use the information we collect from all of our services to
provide, maintain, protect and improve them, to develop new ones, and to
protect Google and our users. We also use this information to offer you
tailored content – like giving you more relevant search results and
ads.
We may use the name you provide for your Google Profile across
all of the services we offer that require a Google Account. In addition,
we may replace past names associated with your Google Account so that
you are represented consistently across all our services. If other users
already have your email, or other information that identifies you, we
may show them your publicly visible Google Profile information, such as
your name and photo.
When you contact Google, we may keep a record of your
communication to help solve any issues you might be facing. We may use
your email address to inform you about our services, such as letting you
know about upcoming changes or improvements.
We use information collected from cookies and other technologies, like
pixel tags,
to improve your user experience and the overall quality of our
services. For example, by saving your language preferences, we’ll be
able to have our services appear in the language you prefer. When
showing you tailored ads, we will not associate a cookie or anonymous
identifier with sensitive categories, such as those based on race,
religion, sexual orientation or health.
We may combine personal information from one service with
information, including personal information, from other Google services –
for example to make it easier to share things with people you know. We
will not combine DoubleClick cookie information with personally
identifiable information unless we have your opt-in consent.
We will ask for your consent before using information for a purpose other than those that are set out in this Privacy Policy.
Google processes personal information on our servers in many
countries around the world. We may process your personal information on a
server located outside the country where you live.
Transparency and choice
People have different privacy concerns. Our goal is to be clear about
what information we collect, so that you can make meaningful choices
about how it is used. For example, you can:
- Review and control certain types of information tied to your Google Account by using Google Dashboard.
- View and edit
your ads preferences, such as which categories might interest you,
using the Ads Preferences Manager. You can also opt out of certain
Google advertising services here.
- Use our editor to see and adjust how your Google Profile appears to particular individuals.
- Control who you share information with.
- Take information out of many of our services.
You may also set your browser to block all cookies, including cookies
associated with our services, or to indicate when a cookie is being set
by us. However, it’s important to remember that many of our services
may not function properly if your cookies are disabled. For example, we
may not remember your language preferences.
Information you share
Many of our services let you share information with others. Remember
that when you share information publicly, it may be indexable by search
engines, including Google. Our services provide you with different
options on sharing and removing your content.
Accessing and updating your personal information
Whenever you use our services, we aim to provide you with access to
your personal information. If that information is wrong, we strive to
give you ways to update it quickly or to delete it – unless we have to
keep that information for legitimate business or legal purposes. When
updating your personal information, we may ask you to verify your
identity before we can act on your request.
We may reject requests that are unreasonably repetitive, require
disproportionate technical effort (for example, developing a new system
or fundamentally changing an existing practice), risk the privacy of
others, or would be extremely impractical (for instance, requests
concerning information residing on backup tapes).
Where we can provide information access and correction, we will
do so for free, except where it would require a disproportionate effort.
We aim to maintain our services in a manner that protects information
from accidental or malicious destruction. Because of this, after you
delete information from our services, we may not immediately delete
residual copies from our active servers and may not remove information
from our backup systems.
Information we share
We do not share personal information with companies, organizations
and individuals outside of Google unless one of the following
circumstances apply:
-
With your consent
We will share personal information with companies, organizations
or individuals outside of Google when we have your consent to do so. We
require opt-in consent for the sharing of any sensitive personal information.
-
With domain administrators
If your Google Account is managed for you by a domain administrator
(for example, for Google Apps users) then your domain administrator and
resellers who provide user support to your organization will have
access to your Google Account information (including your email and
other data). Your domain administrator may be able to:
- view statistics regarding your account, like statistics regarding applications you install.
- change your account password.
- suspend or terminate your account access.
- access or retain information stored as part of your account.
- receive your account information in order to satisfy applicable
law, regulation, legal process or enforceable governmental request.
- restrict your ability to delete or edit information or privacy settings.
Please refer to your domain administrator’s privacy policy for more information.
-
For external processing
We provide personal information to our affiliates or other
trusted businesses or persons to process it for us, based on our
instructions and in compliance with our Privacy Policy and any other
appropriate confidentiality and security measures.
-
For legal reasons
We will share personal information with companies, organizations
or individuals outside of Google if we have a good-faith belief that
access, use, preservation or disclosure of the information is reasonably
necessary to:
- meet any applicable law, regulation, legal process or enforceable governmental request.
- enforce applicable Terms of Service, including investigation of potential violations.
- detect, prevent, or otherwise address fraud, security or technical issues.
- protect against harm to the rights, property or safety of Google, our users or the public as required or permitted by law.
We may share aggregated,
non-personally identifiable information
publicly and with our partners – like publishers, advertisers or
connected sites. For example, we may share information publicly to show
trends about the general use of our services.
If Google is involved in a merger, acquisition or asset sale, we
will continue to ensure the confidentiality of any personal information
and give affected users notice before personal information is
transferred or becomes subject to a different privacy policy.
Information security
We work hard to protect Google and our users from unauthorized access
to or unauthorized alteration, disclosure or destruction of information
we hold. In particular:
- We encrypt many of our services using SSL.
- We offer you two step verification when you access your Google Account, and a Safe Browsing feature in Google Chrome.
- We review our information collection, storage and processing
practices, including physical security measures, to guard against
unauthorized access to systems.
- We restrict access to personal information to Google employees,
contractors and agents who need to know that information in order to
process it for us, and who are subject to strict contractual
confidentiality obligations and may be disciplined or terminated if they
fail to meet these obligations.
Application
Our Privacy Policy applies to all of the services offered by Google
Inc. and its affiliates, including services offered on other sites (such
as our advertising services), but excludes services that have separate
privacy policies that do not incorporate this Privacy Policy.
Our Privacy Policy does not apply to services offered by other
companies or individuals, including products or sites that may be
displayed to you in search results, sites that may include Google
services, or other sites linked from our services. Our Privacy Policy
does not cover the information practices of other companies and
organizations who advertise our services, and who may use cookies, pixel
tags and other technologies to serve and offer relevant ads.
Enforcement
We regularly review our compliance with our Privacy Policy. We also adhere to several
self regulatory frameworks.
When we receive formal written complaints, we will contact the person
who made the complaint to follow up. We work with the appropriate
regulatory authorities, including local data protection authorities, to
resolve any complaints regarding the transfer of personal data that we
cannot resolve with our users directly.
Changes
Our Privacy Policy may change from time to time. We will not reduce
your rights under this Privacy Policy without your explicit consent. We
will post any privacy policy changes on this page and, if the changes
are significant, we will provide a more prominent notice (including, for
certain services, email notification of privacy policy changes). We
will also keep prior versions of this Privacy Policy in an archive for
your review.
Specific product practices
The following notices explain specific privacy practices with respect to certain Google products and services that you may use:
