iGoogle Privacy Notice
July 2009 version (view changes)
The Google Privacy Policy describes how we treat personal information when you use Google's products and services, including information provided to products that use Google's iGoogle technology. In addition, the following describes our privacy practices that are specific to iGoogle.
Personal information
- You need a Google Account to create an iGoogle homepage that is accessible from any Internet-connected computer. Google asks for some personal information when you create a Google Account, including your email address and a password, which is used to protect your account from unauthorized access. A Google Account allows you to access many of our services that require registration.
- You may also create an iGoogle homepage that is accessible only from your computer, with preference settings stored in a cookie.
- You may choose to submit additional information in order to personalize your homepage (such as a zip code to customize your weather forecast).
- When you use iGoogle, Google's servers automatically record log information which may include information about your preference settings.
Uses
- Google maintains and processes personal information in order to provide your personalized homepage and other services. This information will be stored in a cookie on your machine and sent to Google when you request the page if you have set up a page without an associated Google Account, or transmitted to Google's servers and securely stored in association with your Google Account information if you are signed in to your Google Account.
Your choices
- You can terminate your Google Account at any time as described here.
- You can change or delete the preference settings in your iGoogle Account at any time as described in our iGoogle Help Center. Note that when you close some sections of your personalized homepage, such as Bookmarks, your settings are still saved and will reappear if you add that section back to your homepage later.
- You can delete your cookie with your preferences stored by following the instructions for deleting cookies in your browser.
Information Sharing
- Most iGoogle gadgets and themes are provided by third parties, not Google, who may receive and process your requests and preference settings for that gadget or theme in order to provide their service. In some cases, other information including one or more of your Google cookies may also be technically available to the third party, although third parties are prohibited by contract from accessing your Google cookies or other information unrelated to the gadget or theme they provide. Use of your information by these third parties is not governed by this Privacy Policy. Gadgets and Themes made by Google are labeled with a "By Google" logo in the gadget directory.
- Some iGoogle gadgets allow you to share information, updates and activities with your friends. These social gadgets are labeled with a social icon. You can control what information these gadgets share with your friends by following these Google help instructions.
- We may share aggregate statistics about iGoogle usage with our business partners. We will not share personally identifying information with these partners or any third parties without your consent, except under the narrow circumstances described in the Google Privacy Policy.
More information
Google adheres to the US Safe Harbor privacy principles. For more information about the Safe Harbor framework or our registration, see the Department of Commerce's web site.
For more information about our privacy practices, go to the full privacy policy. For questions concerning the product or your account, please check out the Google Help page.