Privacy & Terms

This is an archived version of our Terms of Service. View the current version or all past versions.

Google Terms of Service

Effective 5 January 2022 | Archived versions | Download PDF

What’s covered in these terms

We know it’s tempting to skip these Terms of Service, but it’s important to establish what you can expect from us as you use Google services, and what we expect from you.

These Terms of Service reflect the way that Google’s business works, the laws that apply to our company, and certain things that we’ve always believed to be true. As a result, these Terms of Service help define Google’s relationship with you as you interact with our services. For example, these terms include the following topic headings:

What you can expect from us, which describes how we provide and develop our services
What we expect from you, which establishes certain rules for using our services
Content in Google services, which describes the intellectual property rights to the content that you find in our services – whether that content belongs to you, Google or others
In case of problems or disagreements, which describes other legal rights that you have, and what to expect in case someone violates these terms.

Understanding these terms is important because, by using our services, you’re agreeing to these terms.

In addition to these terms, we also publish a Privacy Policy. We encourage you to read it to better understand how you can update, manage, export and delete your information.

Terms

Service provider

Google services are provided by, and you’re contracting with:

Google LLC
organised under the laws of the State of Delaware, USA, and operating under the laws of the USA

1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
Mountain View, California 94043
USA

Age requirements

If you’re under the age required to manage your own Google Account, you must have your parent or legal guardian’s permission to use a Google Account. Please ask your parent or legal guardian to read these terms with you.

If you’re a parent or legal guardian, and you allow your child to use the services, then these terms apply to you and you’re responsible for your child’s activity on the services.

Some Google services have additional age requirements as described in their service-specific additional terms and policies.

Your relationship with Google

These terms help define the relationship between you and Google. Broadly speaking, we give you permission to use our services if you agree to follow these terms, which reflect how Google’s business works and how we earn money. When we speak of 'Google', 'we', 'us' and 'our', we mean Google LLC and its affiliates.

What you can expect from us

Provide a broad range of useful services

We provide a broad range of services that are subject to these terms, including:

apps and sites (like Search and Maps)
platforms (like Google Shopping)
integrated services (like Maps embedded in other companies’ apps or sites)
devices (like Google Nest)

Many of these services also include content that you can stream or interact with.

Our services are designed to work together, making it easier for you to move from one activity to the next. For example, if your Calendar event includes an address, you can click on that address and Maps can show you how to get there.

Develop, improve and update Google services

We’re constantly developing new technologies and features to improve our services. For example, we use artificial intelligence and machine learning to provide you with simultaneous translations and to better detect and block spam and malware. As part of this continual improvement, we sometimes add or remove features and functionalities, increase or decrease limits to our services and start offering new services or stop offering old ones. When a service requires or includes downloadable software, that software sometimes updates automatically on your device once a new version or feature is available. Some services let you adjust your automatic update settings.

If we make material changes that negatively impact your use of our services or if we stop offering a service, we’ll provide you with reasonable advance notice, except in urgent situations such as preventing abuse, responding to legal requirements or addressing security and operability issues. We’ll also provide you with an opportunity to export your content from your Google Account using Google Takeout, subject to applicable law and policies.

What we expect from you

Follow these terms and service-specific additional terms

The permission that we give you to use our services continues as long as you comply with:

these terms
service-specific additional terms, which could, for example, include things like additional age requirements

You also agree that our Privacy Policy applies to your use of our services. Additionally, we provide resources such as the Copyright Help Centre and Safety Centre, as well as descriptions of our technologies from our policies site to answer common questions and to set expectations about using our services.

Although we give you permission to use our services, we retain any intellectual property rights that we have in the services.

Respect others

We want to maintain a respectful environment for everyone, which means that you must follow these basic rules of conduct:

comply with applicable laws, including export control, sanctions and human trafficking laws
respect the rights of others, including privacy and intellectual property rights
don’t abuse or harm others or yourself (or threaten or encourage such abuse or harm) – for example, by misleading, defrauding, illegally impersonating, defaming, bullying, harassing or stalking others
don’t abuse, harm, interfere with or disrupt the services – for example, by accessing or using them in fraudulent or deceptive ways, introducing malware or spamming, hacking or bypassing our systems or protective measures. When we index the web to bring you search results, we respect standard usage restrictions that website owners specify in their websites’ code, so we require the same when others use our services

Our service-specific additional terms and policies provide additional details about appropriate conduct that everyone using those services must follow. If you find that others aren’t following these rules, many of our services allow you to report abuse. If we act on a report of abuse, we also provide the process described in the Taking action in case of problems section.

Permission to use your content

Some of our services are designed to let you upload, submit, store, send, receive or share your content. You have no obligation to provide any content to our services and you’re free to choose the content that you want to provide. If you choose to upload or share content, please make sure that you have the necessary rights to do so and that the content is lawful.

Licence

Your content remains yours, which means that you retain any intellectual property rights that you have in your content. For example, you have intellectual property rights in the creative content that you make, such as reviews that you write. Or you may have the right to share someone else’s creative content if they’ve given you their permission.

We need your permission if your intellectual property rights restrict our use of your content. You provide Google with that permission through this licence.

What's covered

This licence covers your content if that content is protected by intellectual property rights.

What’s not covered

This licence doesn’t affect your privacy rights – it’s only about your intellectual property rights
This licence doesn’t cover these types of content:
- publicly available, factual information that you provide, such as corrections to the address of a local business. That information doesn’t require a licence because it’s considered common knowledge that everyone’s free to use.
- feedback that you offer, such as suggestions to improve our services. Feedback is covered in the Service-related communications section below.

Scope

This licence is:

worldwide, which means that it’s valid anywhere in the world
non-exclusive, which means that you can licence your content to others
royalty-free, which means that there are no monetary fees for this licence

Rights

This licence allows Google to:

host, reproduce, distribute, communicate and use your content – for example, to save your content on our systems and make it accessible from anywhere that you go
publish, publicly perform or publicly display your content, if you’ve made it visible to others
modify and create derivative works based on your content, such as reformatting or translating it
sublicense these rights to:
- other users to allow the services to work as designed, such as enabling you to share photos with people that you choose
- our contractors who’ve signed agreements with us that are consistent with these terms, only for the limited purposes described in the Purpose section below

Purpose

This licence is for the limited purpose of:

operating and improving the services, which means allowing the services to work as designed and creating new features and functionalities. This includes using automated systems and algorithms to analyse your content:
- for spam, malware and illegal content
- to recognise patterns in data, such as determining when to suggest a new album in Google Photos to keep related photos together
- to customise our services for you, such as providing recommendations and personalised search results, content and ads (which you can change or turn off in Ad Settings)
This analysis occurs as the content is sent, received and when it is stored.
using content that you’ve shared publicly to promote the services. For example, to promote a Google app, we might quote a review that you wrote. Or to promote Google Play, we might show a screenshot of the app that you offer in the Play Store.
developing new technologies and services for Google consistent with these terms

Duration

This licence lasts for as long as your content is protected by intellectual property rights.

If you remove from our services any content that’s covered by this licence, our systems will stop making that content publicly available in a reasonable amount of time. There are two exceptions:

If you already shared your content with others before removing it. For example, if you shared a photo with a friend who then made a copy of it, or shared it again, then that photo may continue to appear in your friend’s Google Account even after you remove it from your Google Account.
If you make your content available through other companies' services, it’s possible that search engines, including Google Search, will continue to find and display your content as part of their search results.

Using Google services

Your Google Account

If you meet these age requirements, you can create a Google Account for your convenience. Some services require that you have a Google Account in order to work – for example, to use Gmail, you need a Google Account so that you have a place to send and receive your email.

You’re responsible for what you do with your Google Account, including taking reasonable steps to keep your Google Account secure, and we encourage you to regularly use the Security Check-Up.

Using Google services on behalf of an organisation or business

Many organisations, such as businesses, non-profits and schools, take advantage of our services. To use our services on behalf of an organisation:

an authorised representative of that organisation must agree to these terms
your organisation’s administrator may assign a Google Account to you. That administrator might require you to follow additional rules and may be able to access or disable your Google Account.

To provide you with our services, we sometimes send you service announcements and other information. To learn more about how we communicate with you, see Google’s Privacy Policy.

If you choose to give us feedback, such as suggestions to improve our services, we may act on your feedback without obligation to you.

Content in Google services

Your content

Some of our services give you the opportunity to make your content publicly available – for example, you might post a product or restaurant review that you wrote, or you might upload a blog post that you created.

See the Permission to use your content section for more about your rights in your content, and how your content is used in our services
See the Removing your content section to learn why and how we might remove user-generated content from our services

If you think that someone is infringing your intellectual property rights, you can send us notice of the infringement and we’ll take appropriate action. For example, we suspend or close the Google Accounts of repeat copyright infringers as described in our Copyright Help Centre.

Google content

Some of our services include content that belongs to Google – for example, many of the visual illustrations that you see in Google Maps. You may use Google’s content as allowed by these terms and any service-specific additional terms, but we retain any intellectual property rights that we have in our content. Don’t remove, obscure or alter any of our branding, logos or legal notices. If you want to use our branding or logos, please see the Google Brand Permissions page.

Software in Google services

Some of our services include downloadable software. We give you permission to use that software as part of the services.

The licence that we give you is:

worldwide, which means that it’s valid anywhere in the world
non-exclusive, which means that we can licence the software to others
royalty-free, which means that there are no monetary fees for this licence
personal, which means that it doesn’t extend to anyone else
non-assignable, which means that you’re not allowed to assign the licence to anyone else

Some of our services include software that’s offered under open-source licence terms that we make available to you. Sometimes there are provisions in the open-source licence that explicitly override parts of these terms, so please make sure that you read those licences.

You may not copy, modify, distribute, sell or lease any part of our services or software.

In case of problems or disagreements

Warranty disclaimer

We built our reputation on providing useful, reliable services like Google Search and Maps, and we’re continuously improving our services to meet your needs. However, for legal purposes, we offer our services without warranties unless explicitly stated in our service-specific additional terms. The law requires that we explain this using specific legal language and that we use capital letters to help make sure that you see it, as follows:

TO THE EXTENT ALLOWED BY APPLICABLE LAW, WE PROVIDE OUR SERVICES 'AS IS' WITHOUT ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NON-INFRINGEMENT. FOR EXAMPLE, WE DON’T MAKE ANY WARRANTIES ABOUT THE CONTENT OR FEATURES OF THE SERVICES, INCLUDING THEIR ACCURACY, RELIABILITY, AVAILABILITY OR ABILITY TO MEET YOUR NEEDS.

Liabilities

For all users

Both the law and these terms try to strike a balance as to what you or Google can claim from the other in case of problems. That’s why the law allows us to limit certain liabilities – but not others – under these terms.

These terms only limit our responsibilities as allowed by applicable law. These terms don’t limit liability for gross negligence or willful misconduct.

To the extent allowed by applicable law:

Google is liable only for its breaches of these terms or applicable service-specific additional terms
Google isn’t liable for:
- loss of profits, revenues, business opportunities, goodwill or anticipated savings
- indirect or consequential losses
- punitive damages
Google’s total liability arising out of or relating to these terms is limited to the greater of (1) $200 or (2) the fees paid to use the relevant services in the 12 months before the dispute

For business users and organisations only

If you’re a business user or organisation:

To the extent allowed by applicable law, you’ll indemnify Google and its directors, officers, employees and contractors for any third-party legal proceedings (including actions by government authorities) arising out of or relating to your unlawful use of the services or breach of these terms or service-specific additional terms. This indemnity covers any liability or expense arising from claims, losses, damages, judgments, fines, litigation costs and legal fees.
If you’re legally exempt from certain responsibilities, including indemnification, then those responsibilities don’t apply to you under these terms. For example, the United Nations enjoys certain immunities from legal obligations and these terms don’t override those immunities.

Taking action in case of problems

Before taking action as described below, we’ll provide you with advance notice when reasonably possible, describe the reason for our action and give you an opportunity to fix the problem, unless doing so would:

cause harm or liability to a user, third party or Google
violate the law or a legal enforcement authority’s order
compromise an investigation
compromise the operation, integrity or security of our services

Removing your content

If any of your content (1) breaches these terms, service-specific additional terms or policies, (2) violates applicable law or (3) could harm our users, third parties or Google, then we reserve the right to take down some or all of that content in accordance with applicable law. Examples include child pornography, content that facilitates human trafficking or harassment, terrorist content and content that infringes someone else’s intellectual property rights.

Suspending or terminating your access to Google services

Google reserves the right to suspend or terminate your access to the services or delete your Google Account if any of these things happen:

you materially or repeatedly breach these terms, service-specific additional terms or policies
we’re required to do so to comply with a legal requirement or a court order
your conduct causes harm or liability to a user, third party or Google – for example, by hacking, phishing, harassing, spamming, misleading others or scraping content that doesn’t belong to you

For more information about why we disable accounts and what happens when we do, see this Help Centre page. If you believe that your Google Account has been suspended or terminated in error, you can appeal.

Of course, you’re always free to stop using our services at any time. If you do stop using a service, we’d appreciate knowing why so that we can continue improving our services.

Settling disputes, governing law and courts

For information about how to contact Google, please visit our contact page.

Californian law will govern all disputes arising out of or relating to these terms, service-specific additional terms or any related services, regardless of conflict of laws rules. These disputes will be resolved exclusively in the federal or state courts of Santa Clara County, California, USA, and you and Google consent to personal jurisdiction in those courts.

About these terms

By law, you have certain rights that can’t be limited by a contract like these Terms of Service. These terms are in no way intended to restrict those rights.

These terms describe the relationship between you and Google. They don’t create any legal rights for other people or organisations, even if others benefit from that relationship under these terms.

We want to make these terms easy to understand, so we’ve used examples from our services. But not all the services mentioned may be available in your country.

If these terms conflict with the service-specific additional terms, the additional terms will govern for that service.

If it turns out that a particular term is not valid or enforceable, this will not affect any other terms.

If you don’t follow these terms or the service-specific additional terms, and we don’t take action right away, that doesn’t mean we’re giving up any rights that we may have, such as taking action in the future.

We may update these terms and service-specific additional terms (1) to reflect changes in our services or how we do business – for example, when we add new services, features, technologies, pricing or benefits (or remove old ones), (2) for legal, regulatory or security reasons or (3) to prevent abuse or harm.

If we materially change these terms or service-specific additional terms, we'll provide you with reasonable advance notice and the opportunity to review the changes, except (1) when we launch a new service or feature, or (2) in urgent situations, such as preventing ongoing abuse or responding to legal requirements. If you don't agree to the new terms, you should remove your content and stop using the services. You can also end your relationship with us at any time by closing your Google Account.

Definitions

affiliate

An entity that belongs to the Google group of companies, which means Google LLC and its subsidiaries, including the following companies that provide consumer services in the EU: Google Ireland Limited, Google Commerce Limited and Google Dialer Inc.

business user

An individual or entity who is not a consumer (see consumer).

consumer

An individual who uses Google services for personal, non-commercial purposes outside of their trade, business, craft or profession. (See business user)

copyright

A legal right that allows the creator of an original work (such as a blog post, photo or video) to decide if and how that original work may be used by others, subject to certain limitations and exceptions (such as 'fair use' and 'fair dealing').

disclaimer

A statement that limits someone’s legal responsibilities.

indemnify or indemnity

An individual or organisation’s contractual obligation to compensate the losses suffered by another individual or organisation from legal proceedings such as lawsuits.

intellectual property rights (IP rights)

Rights over the creations of a person’s mind, such as inventions (patent rights); literary and artistic works (copyright); designs (design rights), and symbols, names and images used in commerce (trademarks). IP rights may belong to you, another individual or an organisation.

liability

Losses from any type of legal claim, whether the claim is based on a contract, tort (including negligence) or other reason, and whether or not those losses could have been reasonably anticipated or foreseen.

organisation

A legal entity (such as a corporation, non-profit or school) and not an individual person.

services

The Google services that are subject to these terms are the products and services listed at https://policies.google.com/terms/service-specific, including:

apps and sites (like Search and Maps)
platforms (like Google Shopping)
integrated services (such as Maps embedded in other companies' apps or sites)
devices and other goods (like Google Nest)