Last modified: October 25, 2011 (view archived version)
The Google Privacy Policy describes how we treat personal information during your use of Google's products and services (“Google Services”), including Google TV. This Privacy Notice specifically describes our privacy practices relating to Google TV. If you have not yet updated to the version of Google TV first made available on October 25, 2011, you remain subject to the Privacy Notice for the Google TV Platform (version 1), which can be found here.
“Google TV” is a Google Service that is incorporated into or that works in conjunction with certain third-party hardware, devices, products, applications, and services that are provided by Google’s partners, application developers, and/or licensees of the Google TV software platform. The Google TV software platform is referred to below as the "Google TV Platform." Hardware on which the Google TV Platform is installed is referred to below as the "Google TV Product." A number of products, applications, and services are available through and for use on the Google TV Platform. These are referred to as “Retail Products” below. The Google Privacy Policy and this Privacy Notice for the Google TV Platform are referred to together as the “Google Privacy Policies.”
Please note that products and services provided by third parties, including but not limited to providers of the Google TV Product and Retail Products, may be governed by separate privacy policies made available by those third parties (“Other Privacy Policies”). The Google Privacy Policies apply only to products and services provided by Google, and not to those provided by third parties. In the same way, any privacy terms presented to you in Other Privacy Policies or other third-party agreements are controlling only with respect to the non-Google elements of those products. You should carefully review any Other Privacy Policies that apply to your use of other products and services, including Retail Products and Google TV Products. To the extent that any Other Privacy Policies or 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. Only the Google Privacy Policies apply to Google Services and your use of Google Services; 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 Google Services.
Google will not collect your TV viewing history unless you provide opt-in consent. As reviewed below, you may elect to have the Google TV Platform collect and store information about which content you select or tune to through the regular television service connected to your Google TV Product and/or the "TV and Movies" feature on the Google TV Platform. Otherwise, the Google TV Platform does not collect information about what content you watch.
Please note that third-party television service providers typically collect user data relating to channels tuned to 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 Google TV Products with enhanced integration with Google TV (for example, DISH Network's products and services), we will have the ability to receive Tuning Data from your television service provider. 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, enhanced integration is not possible with your Google TV Product and we will neither request nor receive your Tuning Data from your service provider. If you have a Google TV Product that permits enhanced integration and you consent to sharing your Tuning Data, Google will use your Tuning Data to provide you with additional functionality, personalized features and/or an enhanced integration of your television service with the Google TV Platform. If you do not consent to your service provider sharing personalized Tuning Data with Google, you will still be able use the Google TV Platform, but it will lack the enhanced integration provided by sharing your Tuning Data (for example, you may not be able to search across DVR and Video on Demand content). We also may use such data internally to improve the Google TV Platform or other Google Services. To the extent that we share Tuning Data with third parties (such as Google TV application developers) in the future, 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 Google Services or Google TV Products.
We collect information required to set up your device. In order to set up your 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 the Google TV Platform. For every Google TV Product that you use, you will have to associate the device with a Google account before we can authenticate and activate your device. It is not possible to log out of the Google TV Platform itself; you must remain authenticated with a Google Account in order to use it.
Each piece of hardware that comprises a Google TV 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 Google TV 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.
You can opt in to have your Google TV Platform collect personalized viewing data in three ways.
Google TV is designed to give you -- if you want it -- a personalized viewing experience. You can opt in to have three different types of information about your viewing preferences and history stored by Google TV, and you can choose to stop collecting and/or delete that data after opting in.
First, as referenced above, you may opt in to the collection and storage of your TV viewing history using the Privacy & Safety settings menu on your Google TV Platform. If you opt in, the Google TV Platform will record the Uniform Resource Identifiers ("URIs") of channels you viewed on your Google TV Product. URIs provide information about the program name, start time of the program, etc. About three hours of viewing information is stored at a given time, with new information overwriting old. Information that is not overwritten is not automatically deleted. This information is currently only stored on your Google TV Product. The extent of the viewing information the Google TV Platform collects may vary depending upon what television service provider you use. Google is currently developing features that will utilize this data. If Google begins using this information and/or uploading it to its servers, we will update this Privacy Notice to reflect that change. If you wish to stop having your Google TV Platform collect this information, you can simply remove the checkbox from that opt-in in the Settings menu. You can also delete this information from your Google TV Product using the "Clear Video History" selection on the Settings menu. Please note that this TV viewing history information is different from the personalized viewing history referenced below.Second, the Google TV Platform's TV & Movies feature provides an optional personal recommendation service. If you opt in through the "Personalized Recommendations" menu available in the TV & Movies feature's settings, the star ratings you give to content on the Google TV Product through the TV & Movies feature will be stored on your Google TV Product and uploaded to our servers so that the TV & Movies feature can provide you with personalized recommendations in the future. You can delete your stored ratings information in the "Personalized Recommendations" menu.
Third, the TV & Movies feature also permits you to store a personalized viewing history for purposes of providing you with recommendations. If you opt in through the the "Personalized Recommendations" menu available in the TV & Movies feature's settings, the Google TV Platform will collect information about content you directly access through the TV & Movies feature and upload that information to our servers to provide you with personalized recommendations through the TV & Movies service. You can delete your viewing history information and/or have the Google TV Platform stop collecting that history in the "Personalized Recommendations" menu.
We log certain data. In order to continually improve our services and provide a better user experience, we always collect some information and statistics from your Google TV Product and/or the Google TV Platform. For example, we log information regarding problems setting up your system, issues with features of your system, and your use of the quick-access keys on your remote (that is, the DVR key, the guide key, the search key, etc.). If you opt in to report personalized crash and usage information via the Settings menu, we collect additional information on your usage of your device, including, for example, your use of the Quick Search Box and Chrome. All of the log information referenced above is non-personalized after approximately two weeks and is then stored on our server logs only in the aggregate, if at all.
If a Google Service you wish to access via the Google TV Platform requires you to log in with a Google Account, you typically will be required to log in separately -- using either the same or a different Google Account, as you choose -- to access the Google 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 each such Google Service. Note that if you opt in to synchronizing podcast content on the Google TV Platform through the Podcasts application, that information may be associated with the Google Account assigned to your Google TV Product and stored and treated in a manner consistent with the Google Privacy Policies. You can manage your subscriptions to online podcasts through the Google TV Platform.
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 Services such as Gmail, Google Talk, YouTube (including YouTube Leanback), Blogger, Web Search, Google Video, and so forth. Certain of these Google 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.
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 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 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 Product," that is, the device through which you access and use the Google TV Service.
For instructions on how to delete information from your browsing history as stored on 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 Google TV Platform 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 applies only to web sites that you visit while using Google Chrome. Incognito mode does not impact the collection of data by other Google Services and/or third-party applications or services.
Further information about Google TV is available here. For more information about our privacy practices, visit the Google Privacy Center or review 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)