Google Terms of Service

Last modified: October 25, 2017 (view archived versions)
Welcome to Google!

Thanks for using our products and services (“Services”). The Services are
provided by Google LLC (“Google”), located at 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway,
Mountain View, CA 94043, United States.

By using our Services, you are agreeing to these terms. Please read them carefully.

Our Services are very diverse, so sometimes additional terms or product requirements
(including age requirements) may apply. Additional terms will be available with
the relevant Services, and those additional terms become part of your agreement
with us if you use those Services.
Using our Services

You must follow any policies made available to you within the Services.

Don’t misuse our Services. For example, don’t interfere with our Services
or try to access them using a method other than the interface and the instructions
that we provide. You may use our Services only as permitted by law, including
applicable export and re-export control laws and regulations. We may suspend
or stop providing our Services to you if you do not comply with our terms or
policies or if we are investigating suspected misconduct.

Using our Services does not give you ownership of any intellectual property
rights in our Services or the content you access. You may not use content from
our Services unless you obtain permission from its owner or are otherwise permitted
by law. These terms do not grant you the right to use any branding or logos
used in our Services. Don’t remove, obscure, or alter any legal notices displayed
in or along with our Services.

Our Services display some content that is not Google’s. This content is the
sole responsibility of the entity that makes it available. We may review content
to determine whether it is illegal or violates our policies, and we may remove
or refuse to display content that we reasonably believe violates our policies
or the law. But that does not necessarily mean that we review content, so please
don’t assume that we do.

In connection with your use of the Services, we may send you service announcements,
administrative messages, and other information. You may opt out of some of those
communications.

Some of our Services are available on mobile devices. Do not use such Services
in a way that distracts you and prevents you from obeying traffic or safety
laws.
Your Google Account

You may need a Google Account in order to use some of our Services. You may
create your own Google Account, or your Google Account may be assigned to you
by an administrator, such as your employer or educational institution. If you
are using a Google Account assigned to you by an administrator, different or
additional terms may apply and your administrator may be able to access or disable
your account.

To protect your Google Account, keep your password confidential. You are responsible
for the activity that happens on or through your Google Account. Try not to
reuse your Google Account password on third-party applications. If you learn
of any unauthorized use of your password or Google Account, follow these instructions.
Privacy and Copyright Protection

Google’s privacy policies explain how we treat your personal data and protect
your privacy when you use our Services. By using our Services, you agree that
Google can use such data in accordance with our privacy policies.

We respond to notices of alleged copyright infringement and terminate accounts
of repeat infringers according to the process set out in the U.S. Digital Millennium
Copyright Act.

We provide information to help copyright holders manage their intellectual property
online. If you think somebody is violating your copyrights and want to notify
us, you can find information about submitting notices and Google’s policy
about responding to notices in our Help Center.
Your Content in our Services

Some of our Services allow you to upload, submit, store, send or receive content.
You retain ownership of any intellectual property rights that you hold in that
content. In short, what belongs to you stays yours.

When you upload, submit, store, send or receive content to or through our Services,
you give Google (and those we work with) a worldwide license to use, host, store,
reproduce, modify, create derivative works (such as those resulting from translations,
adaptations or other changes we make so that your content works better with
our Services), communicate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and
distribute such content. The rights you grant in this license are for the limited
purpose of operating, promoting, and improving our Services, and to develop
new ones. This license continues even if you stop using our Services (for example,
for a business listing you have added to Google Maps). Some Services may offer
you ways to access and remove content that has been provided to that Service.
Also, in some of our Services, there are terms or settings that narrow the scope
of our use of the content submitted in those Services. Make sure you have the
necessary rights to grant us this license for any content that you submit to
our Services.

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. This analysis occurs as the content
is sent, received, and when it is stored.

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. For example, you can choose your settings so your name
and photo do not appear in an ad.

You can find more information about how Google uses and stores content in the
privacy policy or additional terms for particular Services. If you submit feedback
or suggestions about our Services, we may use your feedback or suggestions without
obligation to you.
About Software in our Services

When a Service requires or includes downloadable software, this software may
update automatically on your device once a new version or feature is available.
Some Services may let you adjust your automatic update settings.

Google gives you a personal, worldwide, royalty-free, non-assignable and non-exclusive
license to use the software provided to you by Google as part of the Services.
This license is for the sole purpose of enabling you to use and enjoy the benefit
of the Services as provided by Google, in the manner permitted by these terms.
You may not copy, modify, distribute, sell, or lease any part of our Services
or included software, nor may you reverse engineer or attempt to extract the
source code of that software, unless laws prohibit those restrictions or you
have our written permission.

Open source software is important to us. Some software used in our Services
may be offered under an open source license that we will make available to you.
There may be provisions in the open source license that expressly override some
of these terms.
Modifying and Terminating our Services

We are constantly changing and improving our Services. We may add or remove
functionalities or features, and we may suspend or stop a Service altogether.

You can stop using our Services at any time, although we’ll be sorry to see
you go. Google may also stop providing Services to you, or add or create new
limits to our Services at any time.

We believe that you own your data and preserving your access to such data is
important. If we discontinue a Service, where reasonably possible, we will give
you reasonable advance notice and a chance to get information out of that Service.
Our Warranties and Disclaimers

We provide our Services using a commercially reasonable level of skill and care
and we hope that you will enjoy using them. But there are certain things that
we don’t promise about our Services.

Other than as expressly set out in these terms or additional terms, neither
Google nor its suppliers or distributors make any specific promises about the
Services. For example, we don’t make any commitments about the content within
the Services, the specific functions of the Services, or their reliability,
availability, or ability to meet your needs. We provide the Services “as is”.

Some jurisdictions provide for certain warranties, like the implied warranty
of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement. To
the extent permitted by law, we exclude all warranties.
Liability for our Services

When permitted by law, Google, and Google’s suppliers and distributors, will
not be responsible for lost profits, revenues, or data, financial losses or
indirect, special, consequential, exemplary, or punitive damages.

To the extent permitted by law, the total liability of Google, and its suppliers
and distributors, for any claims under these terms, including for any implied
warranties, is limited to the amount you paid us to use the Services (or, if
we choose, to supplying you the Services again).

In all cases, Google, and its suppliers and distributors, will not be liable
for any loss or damage that is not reasonably foreseeable.

We recognize that in some countries, you might have legal rights as a consumer.
If you are using the Services for a personal purpose, then nothing in these
terms or any additional terms limits any consumer legal rights which may not
be waived by contract.
Business uses of our Services

If you are using our Services on behalf of a business, that business accepts
these terms. It will hold harmless and indemnify Google and its affiliates,
officers, agents, and employees from any claim, suit or action arising from
or related to the use of the Services or violation of these terms, including
any liability or expense arising from claims, losses, damages, suits, judgments,
litigation costs and attorneys’ fees.
About these Terms

We may modify these terms or any additional terms that apply to a Service to,
for example, reflect changes to the law or changes to our Services. You should
look at the terms regularly. We’ll post notice of modifications to these terms
on this page. We’ll post notice of modified additional terms in the applicable
Service. Changes will not apply retroactively and will become effective no sooner
than fourteen days after they are posted. However, changes addressing new functions
for a Service or changes made for legal reasons will be effective immediately.
If you do not agree to the modified terms for a Service, you should discontinue
your use of that Service.

If there is a conflict between these terms and the additional terms, the additional
terms will control for that conflict.

These terms control the relationship between Google and you. They do not create
any third party beneficiary rights.

If you do not comply with these terms, and we don’t take action right away,
this doesn’t mean that we are giving up any rights that we may have (such
as taking action in the future).

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

The courts in some countries will not apply California law to some types of
disputes. If you reside in one of those countries, then where California law
is excluded from applying, your country’s laws will apply to such disputes
related to these terms. Otherwise, you agree that the laws of California, U.S.A.,
excluding California’s choice of law rules, will apply to any disputes arising
out of or relating to these terms or the Services. Similarly, if the courts
in your country will not permit you to consent to the jurisdiction and venue
of the courts in Santa Clara County, California, U.S.A., then your local jurisdiction
and venue will apply to such disputes related to these terms. Otherwise, all
claims arising out of or relating to these terms or the services will be litigated
exclusively in the federal or state courts of Santa Clara County, California,
USA, and you and Google consent to personal jurisdiction in those courts.

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