What Does Google Collect? Key Privacy Facts Users Should Know

Quick Summary

What They Collect: Account details, uploaded content, device, location, and activity data (searches, browsing, app use). 25 words max.
How They Use & Share It: Provide services, personalize content/ads, measure performance, share with affiliates/service providers/advertisers, and comply with legal requests. 25 words max.
Your Rights: View/export, update, delete content, control ad personalization, and manage privacy settings; managed accounts have additional admin limits. 25 words max.

Why You Should Care About Google's Privacy Practices

Google collects high‑risk data like emails, photos, call/message logs, and precise location — exposing sensitive personal history if misused.
Extensive profiling and ad targeting can affect what information and offers you see, influencing decisions and possibly causing discrimination.
Services run across billions of devices and daily activities; this scale means one company’s data policies shape vast parts of your digital life.
Managed/enterprise accounts may have limited deletion controls and admins can access or retain data, creating actionable privacy and compliance risks.

Privacy Highlights

What They Collect

Account information (name, email, password, phone number)
User content and files (emails, photos, documents, Drive content, YouTube uploads)
Demographic information (profile info, publicly available info)
Feedback data (product feedback, support requests)
Payment information and purchase activity (payments, billing data)

How They Share Data

Business affiliates (Google affiliates and related companies)
Service providers and contractors (data centers, content review, analytics)
Third-party partners (publishers, developers, ad partners)
Advertising partners and measurement vendors (ads, ad measurement)

Data Retention

Google retains data for varying periods depending on data type and use: some items you can delete immediately; some are auto-anonymized after set periods; some are kept until account deletion; and some are retained longer for legal, security, fraud‑prevention, or financial recordkeeping

Your Rights

Access data (view and export account activity and data via Google Account/Takeout)
Rectify data (update profile and account information)
Erase or limit processing (delete content, set auto-delete for activity)
Object to processing (controls for ad personalization and some settings)

Detailed Analysis

Concerning Practices

Shares data with many third parties including advertisers, affiliates, and service providers
Collects extensive personal data across services (content, location, call logs, browsing)
Uses data for profiling, personalization, and ad targeting across services and devices
Transfers and processes data internationally on servers worldwide (cross-border transfers)
Retains certain categories of data until account deletion or for long periods for security/legal purposes
Limited control in some contexts (domain administrators for managed accounts can restrict deletion)

Personal Data Types

Account information (name, email, password, phone number) User content and files (emails, photos, documents, Drive content, YouTube uploads) Demographic information (profile info, publicly available info) Feedback data (product feedback, support requests) Payment information and purchase activity (payments, billing data) Profile information (name, photo, contact details) Sales and marketing data (ad interactions, preferences) Support data (help requests, communications with support) Browser information (browser type, cookies, local storage, server logs) Geolocation information (GPS, IP address, Wi‑Fi/cell tower signals) Service usage information (search terms, app usage, feature interactions) Website usage data (visits to sites/apps using Google services, Analytics data) Information from other users (contacts, shared content, publicly-sourced info) Publicly available information (indexed news, public records)

Tracking Methods

Essential cookies (service and session cookies for functionality) Analytics cookies (Google Analytics and measurement tools) Advertising cookies (ad personalization and tracking across sites) Social media cookies (used when integrating social features) Pixel tags (tracking pixels for measurement and advertising) Web beacons (beacons for analytics and measurement) Local storage (browser web storage, application data caches)

Third Parties

Business affiliates (Google affiliates and related companies) Service providers and contractors (data centers, content review, analytics) Third-party partners (publishers, developers, ad partners) Advertising partners and measurement vendors (ads, ad measurement) Government authorities (legal process, regulatory requests) Law enforcement (disclosure when legally required or to protect safety)

User Controls

Access data (view and export account activity and data via Google Account/Takeout) Rectify data (update profile and account information) Erase or limit processing (delete content, set auto-delete for activity) Object to processing (controls for ad personalization and some settings) Data portability (export via Google Takeout) Withdraw consent (controls for sharing and some permissions) Opt-out of marketing (ad settings / My Ad Center to control personalized ads) Delete account (close Google Account and request deletion of associated data)

Google Privacy Summary