Last modified: October 15, 2010
The Google Privacy Policy describes how we treat personal information when you use Google's products and services (“Google Services”), including information provided when you use Google TV. In addition, this Privacy Notice describes our privacy practices that are specific to Google TV.
“Google TV” is a Google Service that is incorporated into or that works in conjunction with certain third party hardware, devices, products, and services (“Retail Products”) that are provided by Google’s partners and/or licensees of the Google TV software platform (“Google TV Platform”). The Google Privacy Policy and this Privacy Notice for the Google TV Platform are referred to together as the “Google Privacy Policies.” Products and services provided by third parties, including providers of Retail Products and/or applications available on or through a Retail Product or the Google TV Platform, may be governed by separate privacy policies made available by those third parties (“Other Privacy Policies”).
Please note that the Google Privacy Policies apply only to the products and services provided by Google through the Google TV Platform, and not to any non-Google products or services. In the same way, any privacy terms presented to you in Other Privacy Polices or other third-party agreements are controlling only with respect to the non-Google elements of a Retail Product or other third-party product or service. You should carefully review any Other Privacy Policies that apply to your use of third-party products and services. To the extent that any Other Privacy Policies or other third-party agreements contain any provision bearing on your legal relationship with Google on privacy matters, that provision is null and void, regardless of whether it conflicts with or agrees with the Google Privacy Policies. To put it simply, only the Google Privacy Policies apply to your use of Google Services, and the Google Privacy Policies override and supersede any provision or statement made by any other party relating to Google’s data collection or privacy practices, or to your use of the Google Services.
Google will not collect your TV viewing history unless you provide opt-in consent.The Google TV Platform is not currently designed to collect or store information about which channels you tune to or what programs you watch through the regular television service connected to or through your Google TV Retail Product. Google may collect and store non-personalized usage information related to the fact that a user is watching TV generally, as opposed to surfing the web or using another application on the Google TV Platform. We may also collect and store non-personalized information regarding your query term or page request through the Quick Search Box (see below), but we do not currently gather information regarding your specific program-level viewing activity within the TV application on the Google TV Platform. However, please note that third-party television service providers typically do collect user data relating to channels tuned and content viewed through their services (“Tuning Data”) and may share that information with third parties under certain circumstances; please consult your TV service’s subscriber privacy policy for more information. For certain Retail Products with enhanced integration with Google TV (for example, DISH Network), we will have the ability to receive Tuning Data from your television service provider. However, before we receive any personalized Tuning Data that is related to your use of the Google TV Platform and sharable by your service provider we will ask for your opt-in consent. If we do not ask for your consent to receive data from your television service provider, then enhanced integration is not possible with your Retail Product and we will neither request nor receive your Tuning Data from your service provider. If you do have an enhanced integration Retail Product and provide your consent for sharing your Tuning Data, Google will use it to provide you with additional functionality, personalized features and/or an enhanced integration of your television service with the Google TV Platform. We may also use such data internally to improve the Google TV Platform or other Google Services. If you do not consent to your service provider sharing personalized Tuning Data with Google, you will still be able use your Retail Product but it will lack the enhanced integration that is provided by sharing your Tuning Data (for example, you will not be able to search across your DVR and VOD content). To the extent that we share Tuning Data with third parties in the future (such as Google TV application developers), we will do so only if you give your opt-in consent and if the sharing is for the purpose of providing enhancements and improvements to the the Google Services or Retail Products.
Google may in the future enable the collection of personalized television viewing history directly through the Google TV Platform in order to provide useful personalization services and additional features or functionality. If we do enable such a function, Google will (a) only collect such information with your opt-in consent in a manner that gives you transparency, choice and control over the collection and sharing of your television viewing history through the Google TV Platform; (b) update this Privacy Notice to inform you of the change and describe what information we will be collecting and how it will be used should you choose to opt in; and (c) notify you that this Privacy Notice has been updated and that such personalized television viewing history data may be collected through an optional feature of the Google TV Platform.
Google TV does not collect location information through Google Chrome. Specifically, the location feature of Google Chrome that allows you to share your location with other sites on the Web is disabled in the Google Chrome browser on Google TV. Should we enable that feature in the future, we will update this Privacy Notice to inform you of the change and provide you with a settings option within Google Chrome on Google TV to disable that feature, similar to the settings available on stand-alone versions of Google Chrome.
Google TV does not knowingly or intentionally collect information from individuals under the age of 13. You must be at least 13 years old to establish a Google Account for use with the Google TV Platform. Given the shared and social nature of television and video viewing, we understand that children under the age of 13 may sometimes use the Google TV Platform and/or the Retail Product in a family setting, but they may do so only with the involvement of a parent or legal guardian, under that person’s account and otherwise subject to the Universal Google Terms of Service and the Additional Terms of Service for the Google TV Platform. While certain third-party content that is child-oriented may be accessible via the Google TV Platform, either on television or online, we expect that all use of the Google TV Platform and/or the Retail Product by children will be under the direction and supervision of a responsible adult. You can find more information about safety features on Google TV (including the ability to lock access to the Google Chrome browser on Google TV and/or enable Safe Search) at the Google TV Help Center online.
In order to set up your Google TV Retail Product and use the Google TV Platform, you must sign in with your Google Account (if you already have one) or create a new, free Google Account. Your Google Account information is stored by Google in connection with the registration and activation of your Retail Product. For every Google TV Retail Product that you use, you will have to associate the new device with a Google account before we can authenticate and activate your device.
Other than with respect to Google Queue on Google TV (see below), the Google Account associated with your Google TV Retail Product does not automatically transfer or apply to your use of other Google services on Google TV. If the Google Service requires you to log in with a Google Account, you will be required to log in separately -- using either the same or a different Google Account, as you choose -- to access the Service and/or its personalized features. Your use of other Google Services through the Google TV Platform is governed by the terms of service and privacy notice applicable to the specific Service.
Please keep in mind that if your Google TV Retail Product in a location that is accessible to others, such as a living room or dorm room or other community setting, it is your responsibility to manage access to the device in that shared setting and to protect any personal information stored on it. As with any shared device, you may wish to log out of specific Google services (or third-party web sites) that you have accessed through the Google TV Platform in order to prevent inadvertently sharing information with others who have access to the device. Certain information relating to the sites you visit on the internet or items that you have bookmarked are stored on the Retail Product and may be accessible or viewable by others who have access to the device; in some cases, this may reveal information about television channels you have accessed or other video content that you have requested or that has been delivered to you through the Google TV Platform. If you wish to keep the details of your user activity private from others, you should consider using incognito mode when browsing the internet or connecting your Google TV Retail Product to a television in a more secure or private setting.
It is not possible to log out of the Google TV Platform itself; you must remain authenticated with a Google Account that is associated with the Retail Product in order to use it. However, you can clear data stored on the device through a setting on the Google TV Platform. You may also perform a factory reset of your device to clear all data and associate the device with a different Google Account. For information on clearing history stored on your Google TV Retail Product, and for related privacy and safety settings information, please visit the Google TV Help Center.
Each Retail Product is assigned one or more identification numbers, such as a MAC address. These identification numbers are associated with your Google Account and one or more of them may be used to authenticate and activate your Retail Product, authenticate delivery of some services and features on the Google TV Platform, and to allow your device to sync information between the Google TV Platform and other Google Services.
In order to continually improve our services and provide a better user experience, we collect some basic usage statistics from your Retail Product and/or the Google TV Platform, along with information such as the hardware model of your Retail Product and the version of the Google TV Platform you are running. This information does not by itself identify you to Google, although it may be unique or consist of or contain information that you consider personal. This information may be associated with your Google Account and/or shared with our Retail Product or other third-party partners on an non-personal or aggregate basis that does not individually identify you.
We collect information on device-level events such as crashes or other troubleshooting information that may be associated with your Google Account temporarily in order to provide customer service. This information is non-personalized after approximately two weeks and is then stored only in the aggregate, if at all. None of the information collected for this purpose contains application-level information but is instead data related to such things as network service disruptions, login failures, setup errors, and the like. Apart from this device-level event information, and any content or data that you specifically opt in to synchronizing with your Google Account, other usage data that Google collects regarding your usage of the Google TV Platform is non-personalized before being stored in our server logs.
If you opt in to synchronizing your Google Queue content on the Google TV Platform, that information may be associated with your Google Account and stored and treated in a manner consistent with the Google Privacy Policies. For certain Retail Products that have an enhanced integration with the Google TV Platform, your Google Queue content may include your DVR recordings or Video on Demand content from your TV service provider. You can manage your Google Queue subscriptions to online podcasts through the Google TV Platform; content from your TV service provider that is integrated into your Google Queue should be managed through your DVR or VOD interface, which is accessible through, but separate from, the Google TV Platform (available for Retail Products with enhanced integration). We receive certain log information from the Google TV Platform, including from use of the Quick Search Box, similar to what we receive in Web Search. This information will be non-personalized before it is stored in our logs but the non-personalized data may include your query term or page request. This non-personalized data may in turn include information about the specific video or other content browsed or television channels that navigated to from within the Google TV Platform interface (such as from a query result, a series page, or the What’s On feature). The Google TV log information may also include data about which applications you have accessed through the Google TV Platform (but not data related to your specific activity or usage within a third-party application or service), use duration for particular features on the Google TV Platform, IP address, browser information, the date and time of your request, one or more cookies that may identify your hardware or software configuration, and similar information. Some of this data may also be stored on your Retail Product.
In addition to third-party sites across the internet, you may use the Google TV Platform, including the Google Chrome browser on Google TV, to access certain Google products and services such as Gmail, Google Talk, YouTube (including YouTube Leanback), Blogger, Web Search, Google Video, and so forth. Certain of these products and services may allow you to personalize the content you receive from Google. For these services, we will store your preferences and the information you provide for customization in accordance with the Google Privacy Policy and any privacy notice that describes how Google treats your personal information when you use that specific service.
To fulfill contractual commitments to rightsholders who provide content through applications on the Google TV Platform, we may use certain information (such as unique device identifiers, IP address, and cookies) to enforce security limits.
Special legal privacy protections for users may apply in cases where law enforcement or civil litigants ask Google for information about specific video content that has been delivered to a user through the Google TV Platform. As described in this Privacy Notice, much of the data currently collected through the Google TV Platform and stored in our server logs is currently non-personalized and therefore Google may simply be unable to fulfill certain requests for user-specific information relating to third-party video content delivered through the Google TV Platform (or video content that is rented or purchased through applications or services accessible through the Google TV Platform). At the federal level, the United States has a special “video privacy” law stating that information relating to a consumer’s request or receipt of certain audiovisual materials may not be disclosed in a way that identifies an individual along with his or her viewing history except under certain specific conditions (for example, if the consumer consents to the disclosure, or if the person asking for the information meets a special, high standard such as providing prior notice to the consumer and obtaining a warrant or court order). Some state and local jurisdictions may have similar laws. Where these video privacy laws exist and apply in our judgment to the Google TV Platform, we will raise them and we will continue our strong history of fighting for high standards to protect users, regardless of whether a particular video privacy law applies.
Google uses the information that it collects and stores from the Google TV Platform for the purposes described in the Google Privacy Policy, including to process your requests and deliver Google services to you, provide customer service functions, provide you with a better user experience, and report on aggregate user trends.
We may share non-personal aggregated information collected through the Google TV Platform with our business partners and certain other third parties.
Google Chrome is pre-installed as an application on your Google TV Retail Product. Your web browsing and navigation on the Google TV Platform occurs through the version of Google Chrome that is installed on your Google TV Retail Product. Information specific to how we treat personal information when you use Google Chrome generally is set forth in the Google Chrome Privacy Notice, which also applies to your use of Google Chrome on Google TV. Specific differences between the information set forth in the Google Chrome Privacy Notice and the treatment of your personal information through Google Chrome on Google TV are described below. For these specific items only, and only with regard to your use of Google Chrome on the Google TV Platform, this Google TV Privacy Notice supersedes the Google Chrome Privacy Notice.
All references to “your computer” or “your machine” in the Google Chrome Privacy Notice (or in the Google Privacy Policy or any specific Privacy Notice) should be interpreted as “your Google TV Retail Product” or the device through which you access and use the Google TV Platform.
Because Google Chrome is pre-installed on the Google TV Platform, statements in the Google Chrome Privacy Notice that pertain to any download, installation, or update of Google Chrome do not apply to Google Chrome on the Google TV Platform. Any updates to Google Chrome on Google TV will be performed as part of regular updates to the Google TV Platform. Use of Google Chrome on Google TV necessarily involves the provision of registration information because a Google Account is required to activate and use the Google TV Platform. However, you can use Google Chrome on Google TV without signing in to any specific Google services other than your initial registration through the Google TV Platform.
Some features of Google Chrome are not available on the pre-installed version of Google Chrome on Google TV (such as Translate, Autofill, downloads of extensions and plug-ins, location and synchronization services, and the like). For any feature not available through the version of Google Chrome on Google TV, the information in the Google Chrome Privacy Notice relating to that feature does not apply to your use of Google Chrome on the Google TV Platform.For instructions on how to delete information from your browsing history as stored on your Google TV Retail Product through the Google TV Platform, or for information on managing aspects of Google Chrome that are unique to the Google TV Platform, please access the Settings menu on your Retail Product or visit the Google TV Help Center online rather than the Google Chrome FAQ referenced in the Google Chrome Privacy Notice.
The pre-installed version of Google Chrome on the Google TV Platform includes incognito mode, which works in the same way as incognito mode on stand-alone versions of Google Chrome for sites that you visit on the internet. Although incognito mode may appear as an option in the menu settings of your TV application on the Google TV Platform (and/or the incognito mode notification icon may appear on-screen during your television viewing sessions if you have incognito mode enabled in Google Chrome on Google TV), incognito mode is not currently available in connection with anything other than web sites that you visit while using Google Chrome; it specifically does not apply to your television viewing sessions through the Google TV Platform. This is because Google does not currently collect any specific television viewing history data through the Google TV Platform (see above), and therefore there is nothing to “incognito.” Should we collect television viewing history data through the Google TV Platform in the future, we will update this Privacy Notice to describe the availability and operation of incognito mode as applied to your television viewing sessions at that time.
Further information about Google TV is available here. For more information about our privacy practices, visit the Google Privacy Center or go to the full Google Privacy Policy. If you have additional questions, please feel free to contact us through our website or write to us at:
Privacy Matters
c/o Google Inc.
1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
Mountain View, California, 94043 (USA)