Privacy Policy
Information we collect and how we use it
We
offer a number of services that do not require you to register for an
account or provide any personal information to us, such as Google
Search. In order to provide our full range of services, we may collect
the following types of information:
- Information you provide – When you sign up for a Google Account
or other Google service or promotion that requires registration, we ask
you for personal information (such as your name, email address and an
account password). For certain services, such as our advertising
programs, we also request credit card or other payment account
information which we maintain in encrypted form on secure servers. We
may combine the information you submit under your account with
information from other Google services or third parties in order to
provide you with a better experience and to improve the quality of our
services. For certain services, we may give you the opportunity to opt
out of combining such information.
- Cookies – When you visit Google, we
send one or more cookies – a small file containing a string of
characters – to your computer or other device that uniquely identifies
your browser. We use cookies to improve the quality of our service,
including for storing user preferences, improving search results and ad
selection, and tracking user trends, such as how people search. Google
also uses cookies in its advertising services to help advertisers and
publishers serve and manage ads across the web. We may set one or more
cookies in your browser when you visit a website, including Google
sites that use our advertising cookies, and view or click on an ad
supported by Google’s advertising services.
- Log information – When you access
Google services, our servers automatically record information that your
browser sends whenever you visit a website. These server logs
may include information such as your web request, Internet Protocol
address, browser type, browser language, the date and time of your
request and one or more cookies that may uniquely identify your
browser.
- User communications – When you send
email or other communications to Google, we may retain those
communications in order to process your inquiries, respond to your
requests and improve our services.
- Affiliated Google Services on other sites
– We offer some of our services on or through other web sites. Personal
information that you provide to those sites may be sent to Google in
order to deliver the service. We process such information under this
Privacy Policy. The affiliated sites through which our services are
offered may have different privacy practices and we encourage you to
read their privacy policies.
- Gadgets – Google may make available
third party applications through its services. The information
collected by Google when you enable a gadget or other application is
processed under this Privacy Policy. Information collected by the
application or gadget provider is governed by their privacy policies.
- Location data – Google offers
location-enabled services, such as Google Maps for mobile. If you use
those services, Google may receive information about your actual
location (such as GPS signals sent by a mobile device) or information
that can be used to approximate a location (such as a cell ID).
- Links – Google may present links in a
format that enables us to keep track of whether these links have been
followed. We use this information to improve the quality of our search
technology, customized content and advertising. Read more information
about links and redirected URLs.
- Other sites
– This Privacy Policy applies to Google services only. We do not
exercise control over the sites displayed as search results, sites that
include Google applications, products or services, or links from within
our various services. These other sites may place their own cookies or
other files on your computer, collect data or solicit personal
information from you.
Google only processes personal information for
the purposes described in this Privacy Policy and/or the supplementary
privacy notices for specific services. In addition to the above, such
purposes include:
- Providing our services, including the display of customized content and advertising;
- Auditing, research and analysis in order to maintain, protect and improve our services;
- Ensuring the technical functioning of our network;
- Protecting the rights or property of Google or our users; and
- Developing new services.
You
can find more information about how we process personal information by
referring to the supplementary privacy notices for particular services.
Google processes personal information on our servers in the
United States of America and in other countries. In some cases, we
process personal information on a server outside your own country. We
may process personal information to provide our own services. In some
cases, we may process personal information on behalf of and according
to the instructions of a third party, such as our advertising partners.
Choices for personal information
When
you sign up for a particular service that requires registration, we ask
you to provide personal information. If we use this information in a
manner different than the purpose for which it was collected, then we
will ask for your consent prior to such use. If we propose to use personal information for any purposes
other than those described in this Privacy Policy and/or in the
specific service privacy notices, we will offer you an effective way to
opt out of the use of personal information for those other purposes. We
will not collect or use sensitive information
for purposes other than those described in this Privacy Policy and/or
in the supplementary service privacy notices, unless we have obtained
your prior consent. Most browsers are initially set up to accept cookies, but
you can reset your browser to refuse all cookies or to indicate when a
cookie is being sent. However, some Google features and services may
not function properly if your cookies are disabled. Google uses the DoubleClick advertising cookie
on AdSense partner sites and certain Google services to help
advertisers and publishers serve and manage ads across the web. You can
view, edit, and manage your ads preferences associated with this cookie
by accessing the Ads Preferences Manager. In addition, you may choose to opt out of the DoubleClick cookie at any time by using DoubleClick’s opt-out cookie.
You
can decline to submit personal information to any of our services, in
which case Google may not be able to provide those services to you. Information sharing
Google
only shares personal information with other companies or individuals
outside of Google in the following limited circumstances:
- We have your consent. We require opt-in consent for the sharing of any sensitive personal information.
- We
provide such information to our subsidiaries, affiliated companies or
other trusted businesses or persons for the purpose of processing
personal information on our behalf. We require that these parties agree
to process such information based on our instructions and in compliance
with this Privacy Policy and any other appropriate confidentiality and
security measures.
- We have a good faith belief that access, use,
preservation or disclosure of such information is reasonably necessary
to (a) satisfy any applicable law, regulation, legal process or
enforceable governmental request, (b) enforce applicable Terms of
Service, including investigation of potential violations thereof, (c)
detect, prevent, or otherwise address fraud, security or technical
issues, or (d) protect against harm to the rights, property or safety
of Google, its users or the public as required or permitted by law.
If Google becomes involved in a merger,
acquisition, or any form of sale of some or all of its assets, we will
ensure the confidentiality of any personal information involved in such
transactions and provide notice before personal information is
transferred and becomes subject to a different privacy policy. We may share with third parties certain pieces of aggregated, non-personal information,
such as the number of users who searched for a particular term, for
example, or how many users clicked on a particular advertisement. Such
information does not identify you individually. Please contact us at the address below for any additional questions about the management or use of personal data.
Information security
We
take appropriate security measures to protect against unauthorized
access to or unauthorized alteration, disclosure or destruction of
data. These include internal reviews of our data collection, storage
and processing practices and security measures, as well as physical
security measures to guard against unauthorized access to systems where
we store personal data. We restrict access to personal information to Google
employees, contractors and agents who need to know that information in
order to operate, develop or improve our services. These individuals
are bound by confidentiality obligations and may be subject to
discipline, including termination and criminal prosecution, if they
fail to meet these obligations. Data integrity
Google
processes personal information only for the purposes for which it was
collected and in accordance with this Privacy Policy or any applicable
service-specific privacy notice. We review our data collection, storage
and processing practices to ensure that we only collect, store and
process the personal information needed to provide or improve our
services or as otherwise permitted under this Policy. We take
reasonable steps to ensure that the personal information we process is
accurate, complete, and current, but we depend on our users to update
or correct their personal information whenever necessary. Accessing and updating personal information
When
you use Google services, we make good faith efforts to provide you with
access to your personal information and either to correct this data if
it is inaccurate or to delete such data at your request if it is not
otherwise required to be retained by law or for legitimate business
purposes. We ask individual users to identify themselves and the
information requested to be accessed, corrected or removed before
processing such requests, and we may decline to process requests that
are unreasonably repetitive or systematic, require disproportionate
technical effort, jeopardize the privacy of others, or would be
extremely impractical (for instance, requests concerning information
residing on backup tapes), or for which access is not otherwise
required. In any case where we provide information access and
correction, we perform this service free of charge, except if doing so
would require a disproportionate effort. Some of our services have
different procedures to access, correct or delete users’ personal
information. We provide the details for these procedures in the
specific privacy notices or FAQs for these services.
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