Privacy Policy

The Google Privacy Policy describes how we treat personal information when you use Google's products and services, including information provided when you use Knol.  In addition, the following describes our privacy practices that are specific to Knol.

Personal information

• Google asks for some personal information when you sign up to use Knol, including your email address and a password, which is used to protect your account from unauthorized access.
• In addition to publishing your knols, you may also provide additional author profile information (such as a photo, title or occupation, location, etc.), and you can edit your profile at any time.  To learn how, visit our help page on “Managing Your Author Profile.”
• At your option, you may decide to use our name verification tool.  If you do, we will ask for some additional personal information (such as your phone number or credit card number) to allow us to carry out the verification.  We will securely share that information with a database provider (such as a telephone directory or credit reporting agency), who will tell us if it matches their existing records.  The information you provide will be used only for these authentication purposes and to prevent fraud or other misconduct, unless you explicitly grant us permission to use it in another manner.  After the verification process is complete, your name will be displayed as verified on Knol.  Learn more about the name verification process here.
• Google servers automatically record information about your use of the service.  Similar to other web services, Google records information such as account activity (e.g., storage usage, number of log-ins, actions taken), data displayed or clicked in the Knol interface (including UI elements, settings, and other information), and other log information (e.g., browser type, IP address, date and time of access, cookie ID, referrer URL).  If you are logged in we may associate that information with your account.

Uses

• Google stores, processes and maintains your account information and copies of your published and unpublished knols, including drafts, in order to provide the service to you.  We will also use this information internally to deliver the best possible service to you, such as improving the Knol user interface and maintaining a consistent and reliable user experience.
• When you create a knol, you may choose to leave it unpublished or, when you are ready, it can be published so that others can read it, use it, and contribute to it according to the settings you have selected.  Even before you publish your knol, you can choose to share it with invited co-authors, who will be able to access and modify the content of your knol just as you do.  Use care when including sensitive personal information in knols you share or publish, such as social security numbers, financial account information, home addresses or phone numbers.

Your choices

• You can change your Knol account settings, including your author profile information, at any time in the Settings section of Knol. You can also edit, save drafts, and remove your knols at any time, as described in Knol Help.
• If you delete your knol, we will remove it from public view. Because of the way we maintain this service, residual copies of your knols and other information associated with your account may remain on back-up systems.

More information

Google adheres to the US Safe Harbor privacy principles. For more information about the Safe Harbor framework or our registration, see the website of the Department of Commerce.

Further information about Knol is available in Knol Help.

For more information about our privacy practices, go to the full privacy policy. If you have additional questions, please contact us any time at knolhelp@google.com. Or write to us at:

Privacy Matters

c/o Google Inc.

1600 Amphitheatre Parkway

Mountain View CA 94043 (USA)