Privacy Help Center

You have a range of controls to manage your privacy across Google’s services. To find answers to many common questions about privacy and your data in Google’s products and services, select an option below or visit our Privacy Policy.

Note: This article doesn't address technical problems or issues unrelated to data privacy. If you have technical issues, visit our help center and support forums.

Manage your privacy

Access & download your data

Download your data from Google products & services

Learn about downloading your data, or visit the Takeout Tool to download your data from Google products and services.

You can also use our tools to access and review your data or delete your data.

Submit a data access request

If the info you're looking for is not available via these tools, submit a data access request and specify:

  • The categories of personal info you're seeking;
  • The products or services to which the data relates;
  • Any approximate dates when you think the data may have been collected by Google.

You’ll need to sign in to your Google Account to complete the form.

Important: You can also call our toll-free number, 855-548-2777. Our representatives can answer many of your questions and help you fill out the web-form to ensure we are providing information to the account owner.

Review your basic account info

Access & review your data

When you’re signed in to a Google Account, you can always review and update info by visiting the Google services you use. For example, Photos and Drive are both designed to help you manage specific types of content you’ve saved with Google.

We also built a place for you to review and control info saved in your Google Account. These tools include:

  • My Activity allows you to review and control data that’s created when you use Google services, like searches you’ve done or your visits to Google Play.
  • Google Dashboard allows you to manage info associated with specific products.
  • Personal Info allows you to manage your contact info, such as your name, email, and phone number.

When you’re signed out, you can manage info associated with your browser or device, including:

  • Signed-out search personalization: Choose whether your search activity is used to offer you more relevant results and recommendations.
  • YouTube settings: Pause and delete your YouTube Search History and your YouTube Watch History.
  • Ad Settings: Manage your preferences about the ads shown to you on Google and on sites and apps that partner with Google to show ads.

Submit a data access request

If the info that you want isn't covered by these tools, you can submit a data access request. You can:

  1. Contact us via our designated web-form;
  2. Call our toll-free number, 855-548-2777. Our representatives can answer many of your questions and help you fill out the web-form to ensure we are providing information to the account owner. 

Control your privacy & security settings

Review your privacy settings

You have controls to manage your privacy across our services. You can use Privacy Checkup to review and adjust important privacy settings like those below. In addition to these tools, we also offer specific privacy settings in our products.

  • Activity Controls
    • Decide what types of activity you’d like saved in your account. For example, you can turn on Location History if you want traffic predictions for your daily commute, or you can save your YouTube Watch History to get better video suggestions.
  • Ad Settings
    • Manage your preferences about the ads shown to you on Google and on sites and apps that partner with Google to show ads. You can modify your interests, choose whether your personal info is used to make ads more relevant to you, and turn on or off certain advertising services.
  • About You
    • Control what others see about you across Google services.

Review how you share data with third-party apps and sites

To help you safely share your data, Google lets you give third-party sites and apps access to different parts of your account.

Review how you share data with third-party apps and sites.

Review your security settings

Delete your data

Delete your activity

Delete Google services

Delete your Google Account

You can delete your Google Account at any time. If you change your mind or accidentally delete your account, you might be able to get it back. Learn how to recover your account.

Once your account is deleted, all your data and account content is removed from our systems after a certain amount of time. Our retention policy describes why we hold on to different types of data for different periods of time. Once you delete your Google Account, you’ll no longer be able to use the following:

  • Services that require you to sign in, like Gmail, Drive, and Calendar; 
  • Data associated with your account, including emails, photos, and records of transactions;
  • Subscriptions on YouTube;
  • Content you purchased on Google Play, like movies, games, or music;
  • Info you've saved in Chrome;
  • Your Gmail username. Once it’s deleted, you can't use it again later, and you can't create a new Google Account with the same username.

In addition to these tools, we also offer specific deletion controls in our products, like Photos.

Get help with privacy-related questions

Contact Google with a data privacy inquiry

Google has a designated team to address user privacy inquiries for its consumer and enterprise products. You can:

  1. Contact us via our designated web-form;
  2. Call our toll-free number, 855-548-2777. Our representatives can answer many of your questions and help you fill out the web-form. 

Learn about the data & info Google collects 

What info we collect & how we use it

We're committed to being clear about what info we collect and how we use it. You can find details of our commitments in our Privacy Policy. You'll also get explanations of the types of info we collect, how it's collected, why we collect it, how it's used, and when it's shared. You can also visit our Safety Center to learn about Google’s privacy and security principles.

Where your data is stored

To make sure our services are reliable, we maintain servers around the world. This means your info may be processed on servers outside of the country where you live. Regardless of where your info is processed, Google applies the same level of protection to your data.

Remove content from Google products

Recover or secure your account 

Recover or get back in to your Google Account

If you're having problems with a personal account:

  1. Follow these steps to recover your account.
  2. If you still can't recover your account, find the Product Forum for the product you're using.
  3. Create a post with your question.

If you're using a Google product with a work or school account, find help for Google Workspace.

Suspect that your account has been hacked

Suspicious activity in your account

If you find suspicious activity on your account, follow the steps to secure your account. Use Security Checkup to check your account security settings.

If you think a crime has been committed

If you think that a crime has been committed, you may wish to contact law enforcement.

If you're getting someone else's email

Find out why you're getting someone else's email. 

Get help with a Google product

Visit our help center and support forums.