Privacy Policy

General Information

Thank you for your interest in our website and our online services. Protecting customers/visitors/users data and using it only in the way our customers/visitors/users expect from us is our highest priority. Thus, the following policy is designed to inform you about the processing of your personal data and your rights regarding this processing according to the Data Protection Regulation and other data protection laws.

When you use our services, you’re trusting us with your information.

This Privacy Policy is meant to help you understand what information we collect, why we collect it, and how you can update, manage, export, and delete your information. We build a range of services that help millions of people daily to explore and interact with the world in new ways. Our services include:

• Google apps, sites, and devices, like Search, YouTube, and Google Home
• Platforms like the Chrome browser and Android operating system
• Products that are integrated into third-party apps and sites, like ads, analytics, and embedded Google Maps

You can use our services in a variety of ways to manage your privacy. For example, you can sign up for a Google Account if you want to create and manage content like emails and photos, or see more relevant search results. And you can use many Google services when you’re signed out or without creating an account at all, like searching on Google or watching YouTube videos. You can also choose to browse the web in a private mode, like Chrome Incognito mode, which helps keep your browsing private from other people who use your device. And across our services, you can adjust your privacy settings to control whether we collect some types of data and how we use it.

To help explain things as clearly as possible, we’ve added examples, explanatory videos, and definitions for key terms. And if you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, you can contact us.

Things you create or provide to us

When you create a Google Account, you provide us with personal information that includes your name and a password. You can also choose to add a phone number or payment information to your account. Even if you aren’t signed in to a Google Account, you might choose to provide us with information — like an email address to communicate with Google or receive updates about our services.

1. Your apps, browsers & devices

   We collect information about the apps, browsers, and devices you use to access Google services, which helps us provide features like automatic product updates and dimming your screen if your battery runs low. The information we collect includes unique identifiers, browser type and settings, device type and settings, operating system, mobile network information including carrier name and phone number, and application version number. We also collect information about the interaction of your apps, browsers, and devices with our services, including IP address, crash reports, system activity, and the date, time, and referrer URL of your request.

2. Your activity

   We collect information about your activity in our services, which we use to do things like recommend a YouTube video you might like. The activity information we collect may include: If you use our services to make and receive calls or send and receive messages, we may collect call and message log information like your phone number, calling-party number, receiving-party number, forwarding numbers, sender and recipient email address, time and date of calls and messages, duration of calls, routing information, and types and volumes of calls and messages.

3. Your location information

   We collect location information when you use our services, which helps us offer features like driving directions, search results for things near you, and ads based on your location. Depending on the products you’re using and settings you choose, Google may use different types of location information to help make some services and products you use more helpful. These include:

   • GPS and other sensor data from your device
   • IP address
   • Activity on Google services, such as from your searches or places you label like home or work
   • Information about things near your device, such as Wi-Fi access points

The types of location data we collect and how long we store it depend in part on your device and account settings. For example, you can turn your Android device’s location on or off using the device’s settings app. You can also turn on Timeline if you want to create a private map of where you go with your signed-in devices. And if your Web & App Activity setting is enabled, your searches and other activity from Google services, which may also include location information, is saved to your Google Account. Learn more about how we use location information.

We use data to build better services

We also use your information to ensure our services are working as intended, such as tracking outages or troubleshooting issues that you report to us. And we use your information to make improvements to our services — for example, understanding which search terms are most frequently misspelled helps us improve spell-check features used across our services.

We use the information we collect to customize our services for you, including providing recommendations, personalized content, and customized search results. For example, Security Checkup provides security tips adapted to how you use Google products. And, depending on your available settings, Google Play could use information like apps you’ve already installed and videos you’ve watched on YouTube to suggest new apps you might like.

• We don’t show you personalized ads based on sensitive categories, such as race, religion, sexual orientation, or health.
• We don’t show you personalized ads based on your content from Drive, Gmail, or Photos.
• We don’t share information that personally identifies you with advertisers, such as your name or email, unless you ask us to. For example, if you see an ad for a nearby flower shop and select the “tap to call” button, we’ll connect your call and may share your phone number with the flower shop.

Managing, reviewing, and updating your information

When you’re signed in, you can always review and update information by visiting the services you use. For example, Photos and Drive are both designed to help you manage specific types of content you’ve saved with Google. We also built a place for you to review and control information saved in your Google Account. Your Google Account includes:

• Activity Controls

  Decide what types of activity you’d like saved in your account. For example, if you have YouTube History turned on, the videos you watch and the things you search for are saved in your account so you can get better recommendations and remember where you left off. And if you have Web & App Activity turned on, your searches and activity from other Google services are saved in your account so you can get more personalized experiences like faster searches and more helpful app and content recommendations. Web & App Activity also has a subsetting that lets you control whether information about your activity on other sites, apps, and devices that use Google services, such as apps you install and use on Android, is saved in your Google Account and used to improve Google services.

• Ad settings

  Manage your preferences about the ads shown to you on Google and on sites and apps that partner with Google to show ads. You can modify your interests, choose whether your personal information is used to make ads more relevant to you, and turn on or off certain advertising services.

• Shared endorsements

  Choose whether your name and photo appear next to your activity, like reviews and recommendations, that appear in ads. Manage personal info in your Google Account and control who can see it across Google services.

• Sites and apps that use Google services

  Manage information that websites and apps using Google services, like Google Analytics, may share with Google when you visit or interact with their services.

When you share your information

Many of our services let you share information with other people, and you have control over how you share. For example, you can share videos on YouTube publicly or you can decide to keep your videos private. Remember, when you share information publicly, your content may become accessible through search engines, including Google Search.

When you’re signed in and interact with some Google services, like leaving comments on a YouTube video or reviewing an app in Play, your name and photo appear next to your activity. We may also display this information in ads depending on your Shared endorsements setting.

Other useful resources

If you’re a member of an organization that uses Google Workspace or Google Cloud Platform, learn how these services collect and use your personal information in the Google Cloud Privacy Notice. The following links highlight useful resources for you to learn more about our practices and privacy settings.

• Your Google Account is home to many of the settings you can use to manage your account
• Privacy Checkup guides you through key privacy settings for your Google Account
• Google’s safety center helps you learn more about our built-in security, privacy controls, and tools to help set digital ground rules for your family online
• Google’s Teen Privacy Guide provides answers to some of the top questions we get asked about privacy
• Privacy & Terms provides more context regarding this Privacy Policy and our Terms of Service
• Technologies includes more information about: How Google uses cookies