Companies / Google / Consumer services

Google Consumer services

6 serious, 3 to watch. Found 12 of 23 practices.

Applies to: everyday users.

policies.google.com/terms, crawled 2 Oct 2026policies.google.com/privacy, crawled 2 Oct 2026

Do they refuse responsibility when things break?Yes

…ces to meet your needs. However, for legal purposes, we offer our services without warranties unless explicitly stated in our service-specific additional terms. The law requires that we explain this using specific legal language and that we use capital letters to help make sure you see it, as follows: TO THE EXTENT ALLOWED BY APPLICABLE LAW, WE PROVIDE OUR SERVICES “AS IS” WITHOUT ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT. FOR EXAMPLE, WE DON’T MAKE ANY WARRANTIES ABOUT THE CONTENT OR FEATURES OF THE SERVICES, INCLUDING THEIR ACCURACY, RELIABILITY, AVAILABILITY, OR ABILITY TO MEET YOUR NEEDS.

policies.google.com/terms, lines 194–195

In plain wordsThe company provides its services "as is" and does not guarantee that they will be accurate, reliable, or work for your specific needs. This means if something goes wrong or the service fails, the company is not legally responsible for fixing it or compensating you.

Do they combine your data across products?Yes

We may use the information we collect across our services and across your devices for the purposes described above. For example, depending on your available settings, if you watch videos of guitar players on YouTube, you might see an ad for guitar lessons on a site that uses our ad products. Depending on your account settings, your activity on other sites and apps may be associated with your personal information in order to improve Google’s services and the ads delivered by Google. If other users already have your email address or other information that identifies you, we may show them your publicly visible Google Account information, such as your name and photo. This helps people identify a…

policies.google.com/privacy, lines 492–495

In plain wordsThe company links your activity from different apps and websites to build a single profile about you. This allows them to show you personalized ads based on what you do across their various services.

Do they use what you post to train AI?Yes

We’re constantly developing new technologies and features to improve our services. For example, we use artificial intelligence and machine learning to provide you with simultaneous translations, and to better detect and block spam and malware. As part of this continual improvement, we sometimes add or remove features and functionalities, increase or decrease limits to our services, and start offering new services or stop offering old ones. When a service requires or includes downloadable or preloaded software, that software sometimes updates automatically on your device once a new version or feature is available. Some services let you adjust your automatic update settings.

policies.google.com/terms, lines 86–86

In plain wordsThe company uses your data to train and improve its AI and machine learning models. This means your content may be used to help the system learn how to perform tasks like translation or spam detection.

Do they use your data to target ads?Yes

We don’t show you personalized ads based on sensitive categories, such as race, religion, sexual orientation, or health. We don’t show you personalized ads based on your content from Drive, Gmail, or Photos. We don’t share information that personally identifies you with advertisers, such as your name or email, unless you ask us to. For example, if you see an ad for a nearby flower shop and select the “tap to call” button, we’ll connect your call and may share your phone number with the flower shop. Go to My Ad Center Measure performance

policies.google.com/privacy, lines 481–485

In plain wordsThe company uses your information to show you personalized ads, though they avoid using sensitive details like your health or religion. They also promise not to use the private content in your emails or photos to target you.

Do they track you across sites, apps or places?Yes

If you use fitness products and apps we offer, such as Fitbit, Pixel Watch, Nest or Google Fit, we collect data you provide, like your height and weight. We also collect information from these apps and devices, such as your sleep patterns, heart rate, skin temperature, calories burned, and steps taken. specific Google services For example, you can delete your blog from Blogger or a Google Site you own from Google Sites. You can also delete reviews you’ve left on apps, games, and other content in the Play Store. specific partners

policies.google.com/privacy, lines 804–807

In plain wordsThe company collects sensitive health and biometric data, such as your heart rate, skin temperature, and sleep patterns, from your wearable devices. This information is tracked and stored as you use their fitness products and apps.

Do you pay their legal bills?Yes

To the extent allowed by applicable law, you’ll indemnify Google and its directors, officers, employees, and contractors for any third-party legal proceedings (including actions by government authorities) arising out of or relating to your unlawful use of the services or violation of these terms or service-specific additional terms. This indemnity covers any liability or expense arising from claims, losses, damages, judgments, fines, litigation costs, and legal fees. If you’re legally exempt from certain responsibilities, including indemnification, then those responsibilities don’t apply to you under these terms. For example, the United Nations enjoys certain immunities from legal obligation…

policies.google.com/terms, lines 210–212

In plain wordsIf you use the services illegally or break the rules, you must pay for Google's legal fees, losses, and any damages they are ordered to pay. This means you could be held responsible for their entire cost of defending themselves in court.

Can they read your private messages?Partly

operating and improving the services, which means allowing the services to work as designed and creating new features and functionalities. This includes using automated systems and algorithms to analyze your content: for spam, malware, and illegal content to recognize patterns in data, such as determining when to suggest a new album in Google Photos to keep related photos together to customize our services for you, such as providing recommendations and personalized search results, content, and ads (which you can change or turn off in Ads Settings) This analysis occurs as the content is sent, received, and when it is stored. using content you’ve shared publicly to promote the services. For ex…

policies.google.com/terms, lines 146–151

In plain wordsThe company uses automated systems to scan your content to detect spam, malware, and illegal activity, as well as to provide personalized recommendations and ads. This analysis happens while your data is being sent, received, and stored.

Do they sell or share your data?Partly

…ng and measurement: Google uses information for analytics and measurement to understand how our services are used, as well as to fulfill obligations to our partners like publishers, advertisers, developers, or rights holders. We may disclose non-personally identifiable information publicly and with these partners, including for auditing purposes. Maintaining our services: Google uses information to ensure our services are working as intended, such as tracking outages or troubleshooting bugs and other issues that you report to us. Research and development: Google uses information to improve our services and to develop new products, features and technologies that benefit our users and the publ…

policies.google.com/privacy, lines 631–633

In plain wordsGoogle shares certain information with partners like advertisers and publishers to help them measure how their ads are performing. They also use your data to improve their products and train new AI technologies.

Can they hand your data to authorities without telling you?Partly

Legal reasons: Google also uses information to satisfy applicable laws or regulations, and discloses information in response to legal process or enforceable government requests, including to law enforcement. We provide information about the number and type of requests we receive from governments in our Transparency Report. Parties with whom information may be disclosed Other people with whom you choose to share your information, like docs or photos, videos or comments on YouTube, or health information through Fitbit’s social features and third party applications. Third parties with your consent, such as services that integrate with Google’s services. You can review and manage third party app…

policies.google.com/privacy, lines 636–639

In plain wordsGoogle may share your information with law enforcement or government agencies in response to legal requests, and the clause does not promise to notify you when this happens.

Checked, nothing hostile

rights over the things you post or upload, using your name or photo in ads, passing your data on if the company is sold.

Not covered by these documents

giving up the right to sue in court, refusing to let you delete your account, changing the terms without asking you, locking you in for a year or more, closing your account at any time, keeping your data after you leave, keeping rights to your content after you leave, denying responsibility if your data leaks, renewing your subscription automatically, forcing disputes into their home courts, taking ownership of your ideas and feedback. These usually live in a document we haven’t read yet.