Privacy Policy
Last modified: April
17, 2017.
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, the people who matter most to you online, or
which YouTube videos you might like.
We collect information in the following 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 to store with your account.
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 collect information about the services
that you use and how you use them, like when you watch a video on YouTube,
visit a website that uses our advertising services, or view and interact with our ads and
content. This information includes:
We 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.
o Log information
When you use our services or view content
provided by Google, we automatically collect and store certain information in server logs. This includes:
§ 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.
§ 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.
o Location information
When you use Google services, we may collect and process information about your actual
location. We use various technologies to determine location,
including IP address, GPS, and other sensors that may, for example,
provide Google with information on nearby devices,Wi-Fi access points and cell towers.
o 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.
o 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) andapplication data caches.
o Cookies and similar technologies
We and our partners use various technologies
to collect and store information when you visit a Google service, and this may
include using cookies or similar technologies to
identify your browser or device. We also use these technologies to collect and
store information when you interact with services we offer to our partners,
such as advertising services or Google features
that may appear on other sites. Our Google Analytics product helps businesses
and site owners analyze the traffic to their websites and apps. When used in
conjunction with our advertising services, such as those using the DoubleClick
cookie, Google Analytics information is linked, by the Google Analytics customer or by Google,
using Google technology, with information about visits to multiple sites.
Information we collect when you are signed in to Google, in
addition to information we obtain about you from partners, may be associated
with your Google Account. When information is associated with your Google
Account, we treat it as personal information. For more information about how
you can access, manage or delete information that is associated with your
Google Account, visit theTransparency and choice section of this
policy.
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.
If you have a Google Account, we may display your Profile name,
Profile photo, and actions you take on Google or on third-party applications
connected to your Google Account (such as +1’s, reviews you write and comments
you post) in our services, including displaying in ads and other commercial
contexts. We will respect the choices you make to limit sharing or visibility settings in
your Google Account.
When you contact Google, we 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. One of the products we use to do this on our
own services is Google Analytics. 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 an identifier from
cookies or similar technologies with sensitive categories, such as those based on
race, religion, sexual orientation or health.
Our automated systems analyze your content (including emails) to
provide you personally relevant product features, such as customized search
results, tailored advertising, and spam and malware detection.
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.
Depending on your account settings, your activity on other sites and apps may
be associated with your personal information in order to improve Google’s
services and the ads delivered by Google.
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 update your Google activity controls to
decide what types of data, such as videos you’ve watched on YouTube or past
searches, you would like saved with your account when you use Google services.
You can also visit these controls to manage whether certain
activity is stored in a cookie or similar technology on your device when you
use our services while signed-out of your account.
·
Review and control certain types of
information tied to your Google Account by using Google Dashboard.
·
View and edit your preferences about the
Google ads shown to you on Google and across the web, such as which categories
might interest you, using Ads Settings. You can also visit that page to opt out
of certain Google advertising services.
·
Adjust how the Profile associated with
your Google Account appears to others.
·
Control who you share information with
through your Google Account.
·
Take information associated with your
Google Account out of many of our services.
·
Choose whether your Profile name and
Profile photo appear in shared endorsements that appear in ads.
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 systems).
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 applies:
·
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 anysensitive personal information.
·
With domain administrators
If your Google Account is managed for you by a domain administrator (for example, for G Suite 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:
o view statistics regarding your account, like
statistics regarding applications you install.
o change your account password.
o suspend or terminate your account access.
o access or retain information stored as part of
your account.
o receive your account information in order to
satisfy applicable law, regulation, legal process or enforceable governmental request.
o 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:
o meet any applicable law, regulation, legal process or enforceable governmental request.
o enforce applicable Terms of Service, including
investigation of potential violations.
o detect, prevent, or otherwise address fraud,
security or technical issues.
o 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 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.
When this Privacy
Policy applies
Our Privacy Policy
applies to all of the services offered by Google Inc. and its affiliates,
including YouTube, services Google provides on Android devices, and 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.
Compliance and cooperation with regulatory
authorities
We regularly review our compliance with our
Privacy Policy. We also adhere to several self regulatory frameworks, including the
EU-US and Swiss-US Privacy Shield 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:
·
Payments
·
Fiber
For more information about some of our most popular services,
you can visit the Google Product Privacy Guide.
Other useful privacy
and security related materials
Further useful privacy
and security related materials can be found through Google’s policies
and principles pages, including:
·
Information about our technologies
and principles, which includes, among other things, more information
on
o technologies we use for advertising.
o how we recognize patterns like faces.
·
A page that explains what data is shared
with Google when you visit websites that use our advertising, analytics and
social products.
·
The Privacy Checkup tool, which makes it easy
to review your key privacy settings.
·
Google’s safety
center, which provides information on how to stay safe and secure
online.