Privacy Policy Sign in

When you use our services,

you’re trusting us with your
information. We understand
this is a big responsibility and
work hard to protect your
information and put you in
control.

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.

Privacy Checkup

Looking to change your privacy settings?

Take the Privacy Checkup

Effective March 28, 2024

Archived versions

Download PDF

Contents

Introduction

Information Google collects

Why Google collects data

Your privacy controls

Sharing your information

Keeping your information secure

Exporting & deleting your information

Retaining your information

Compliance & cooperation with regulators

About this policy

Related privacy practices

Introduction | Google Privacy …

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 deTnitions
for key terms. And if you have any questions about
this Privacy Policy, you can contact us .

Information Google collects | …

INFORMATION GOOGLE COLLECTS

We want you to understand

the types of information we
collect as you use our
services

We collect information to provide better services to

all our users — from Tguring out basic stuff like
which language you speak, to more complex things
like which ads you’ll Tnd most useful, the people
who matter most to you online, or which YouTube
videos you might like. The information Google
collects, and how that information is used, depends
on how you use our services and how you manage
your privacy controls.

When you’re not signed in to a Google Account, we

store the information we collect with unique
identiTers tied to the browser, application, or device
you’re using. This allows us to do things like
maintain your preferences across browsing
sessions, such as your preferred language or
whether to show you more relevant search results or
ads based on your activity.

When you’re signed in, we also collect information

that we store with your Google Account, which we
treat as personal information.

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.

We also collect the content you create, upload, or

receive from others when using our services. This
includes things like email you write and receive,
photos and videos you save, docs and spreadsheets
you create, and comments you make on YouTube
videos.

Information we collect as
you use our services

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

identiTers, 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.

We collect this information when a Google service

on your device contacts our servers — for example,
when you install an app from the Play Store or when
a service checks for automatic updates. If you’re
using an Android device with Google apps, your
device periodically contacts Google servers to
provide information about your device and
connection to our services. This information
includes things like your device type and carrier
name , crash reports, which apps you've installed,
and, depending on your device settings, other
information about how you’re using your Android
device .

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:

Terms you search for

Videos you watch

Views and interactions with content and ads

Voice and audio information

Purchase activity

People with whom you communicate or share

content

Activity on third-party sites and apps that use

our services

Chrome browsing history you’ve synced with

your Google Account

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.

You can visit your Google Account to Tnd and

manage activity information that’s saved in your
account.

Go to Google Account

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, cell towers, and
Bluetooth-enabled devices

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 Location
History 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.

In some circumstances, Google also collects

information about you from publicly accessible
sources. For example, if your name appears in your
local newspaper, Google’s Search engine may index
that article and display it to other people if they
search for your name. We may also collect
information about you from trusted partners, such
as directory services who provide us with business
information to be displayed on Google’s services,
marketing partners who provide us with information
about potential customers of our business services,
and security partners who provide us with
information to protect against abuse. We also
receive information from partners to provide
advertising and research services on their behalf.

We use various technologies to collect and store

information, including cookies, pixel tags, local
storage, such as browser web storage or application
data caches, databases, and server logs.

Why Google collects data | G…

WHY GOOGLE COLLECTS DATA

We use data to build be!er

services

We use the information we collect from all our

services for the following purposes:

Provide our services

We use your information to deliver our services, like

processing the terms you search for in order to
return results or helping you share content by
suggesting recipients from your contacts.

Maintain & improve our 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.

Develop new services

We use the information we collect in existing

services to help us develop new ones. For example,
understanding how people organized their photos in
Picasa, Google’s Trst photos app, helped us design
and launch Google Photos.

Provide personalized services,

including content and ads

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.

Depending on your settings, we may also show you

personalized ads based on your interests and
activity across Google services. For example, if you
search for “mountain bikes,” you may see ads for
sports equipment on YouTube. You can control what
information we use to show you ads by visiting your
ad settings in My Ad Center .

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

identiTes you with advertisers, such as your
name or email, unless you ask us to. For
example, if you see an ad for a nearby `ower
shop and select the “tap to call” button, we’ll
connect your call and may share your phone
number with the `ower shop.

Go to My Ad Center

Measure performance

We use data for analytics and measurement to

understand how our services are used. For example,
we analyze data about your visits to our sites to do
things like optimize product design. And we also use
data about the ads you interact with, including your
related Google Search activity, to help advertisers
understand the performance of their ad campaigns.
We use a variety of tools to do this, including Google
Analytics. When you visit sites or use apps that use
Google Analytics, a Google Analytics customer may
choose to enable Google to link information about
your activity from that site or app with activity from
other sites or apps that use our ad services.

Communicate with you

We use information we collect, like your email

address, to interact with you directly. For example,
we may send you a notiTcation if we detect
suspicious activity, like an attempt to sign in to your
Google Account from an unusual location. Or we
may let you know about upcoming changes or
improvements to our services. And if you contact
Google, we’ll keep a record of your request in order
to help solve any issues you might be facing.

Protect Google, our users, and the

public

We use information to help improve the safety and

reliability of our services. This includes detecting,
preventing, and responding to fraud, abuse, security
risks, and technical issues that could harm Google,
our users, or the public.

We use different technologies to process your

information for these purposes. We use automated
systems that analyze your content to provide you
with things like customized search results,
personalized ads, or other features tailored to how
you use our services. And we analyze your content
to help us detect abuse such as spam, malware, and
illegal content. We also use algorithms to recognize
patterns in data. For example, Google Translate
helps people communicate across languages by
detecting common language patterns in phrases you
ask it to translate.

We may use the information we collect across our

services and across your devices for the purposes
described above. For example, depending on your
available settings, if you watch videos of guitar
players on YouTube, you might see an ad for guitar
lessons on a site that uses our ad products.
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.

If other users already have your email address or

other information that identiTes you, we may show
them your publicly visible Google Account
information, such as your name and photo. This
helps people identify an email coming from you, for
example.

We’ll ask for your consent before using your

information for a purpose that isn’t covered in this
Privacy Policy.

Your privacy controls | Googl…

YOUR PRIVACY CONTROLS