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 unauthorised 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 personalise your homepage (such as a postcode to customise 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 personalised 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 Centre. Note that when you close some sections of your personalised homepage, such as Bookmarks, your settings are still saved and will reappear if you add that section to your homepage again later.
- You can delete your cookie with your stored preferences 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 that they provide. Use of your information by these third parties is not governed by this Privacy Policy. Gadgets and Themes made by Google are labelled 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 labelled 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 limited circumstances described in the Google Privacy Policy.
More information
Google adheres to the US Safe Harbour privacy principles. For more information about the Safe Harbour framework or our registration, see the Department of Commerce's website.
For more information about our privacy practices, go to the full privacy policy. For questions concerning the product or your account, please take a look at the Google Help page.