Privacy Notice
October 1, 2011
The Google Privacy Policy
describes how we treat personal information when you use Google's
products and services, including information provided when you use
Picasa Web Albums. In addition, the following describes our privacy
practices that are specific to Picasa Web Albums.
Personal information
- You need a Google Account and Google Profile
to set up an account on Picasa Web Albums and upload photos, videos,
and related content (“photos”). 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
unauthorized access.
- You may view photos posted on Picasa Web Albums by other users without registering for an account.
- When
you use Picasa Web Albums, Google's servers automatically record
certain information about your use. Similar to other web services,
Google records information such as account activity (including storage
usage and number of log-ins), data displayed or clicked on (including
UI links); and other log information (including browser type, IP-address, date and time of access, cookie ID, and referrer URL).
Uses
- Google maintains and processes your photos and account
information in order to provide the Picasa Web Albums service to you
and to operate and improve our services.
Information sharing and onward transfer
- Users who view your albums will see information about you
including your photos, your name, a link to your profile, and your
Linked Galleries. Your selected username may appear as part of the page
URL.
- Your public photos will be connected with your Google Profile.
- If
other users add you to their Favorites Lists, those users will see a
notification when you upload new photos to a public album. Viewers of
their Public Galleries will also see links to your Public Gallery
through the Linked Galleries section on their pages if they have opted
to do so.
- We may recommend your account to other people based on your relationship with other users.
- Your
albums may be visible in Google services to users who have access to
view them. Your public albums may also be indexed and discoverable in
third party services, such as search engines.
- Users may comment on or “like” content in your albums; these comments or likes can be seen by anyone who visits your albums.
- We
do not sell, rent or otherwise share your personal information with any
third parties except in the limited circumstances described in the Google Privacy Policy, such as when we believe we are required to do so by law.
- Google
may review the content of an Album if a user complaint is received, or
if we have reason to believe that the account is used in violation of
our Program Policies.
Your choices
- You may change Account information and other settings by
clicking the "Settings" link in the top right hand corner of a Picasa
Web Albums page.
- If you add someone to your favorites, that person will be notified.
- If you designate an album "Public on the web",
anyone who visits your public gallery will see your album. If you
designate an album "Limited, anyone with the link," those photos will
not appear in your public gallery but can be seen by someone who knows
the URL. If you designate an album "Limited," and you grant a
particular user access to that album, then anyone who visits that album
must enter a username and password before it can be viewed. If you
designate an album “Only You,” the album will only be visible to you
when signed into your account.
- You may organize, modify or
delete your pictures, albums, and associated information such as
captions and location data following instructions in the FAQ.
- When
you delete content or accounts in Picasa Web Albums, residual copies of
deleted photos, associated data, or accounts may take up to 60 days to
be deleted from Picasa Web Albums’ active servers and may remain in our
backup 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 Department of Commerce's web site.
For more information about our privacy practices, go to the full privacy policy. If you have additional questions, please contact us any time. Or write to us at:
Privacy Matters
c/o Google Inc.
1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
Mountain View CA 94043 (USA)
