Google Groups Privacy Notice (view changes)
July 2006
The Google Privacy Policy describes
how we treat personal information when you use Google's products and services,
including information provided when you use Google Groups. In addition, the following
describes our privacy practices that are specific to Google Groups.
Personal information
- You need a Google
Account to create a group or post comments in the Google Groups service.
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. A Google Account allows you to access
many of our services that require registration. You may search for and
read comments in public groups without registering for an account.
- The contents of the postings, custom pages and files, including any text,
images, photos, videos, and audio, that you submit to Google Groups are stored
and maintained on Google servers in order to publish these items and provide
the service. Your submitted content will be associated with your profile,
if you have completed one, or a "masked" version of your email
address, if you have not. We mask your email in an effort to protect users
from email harvesting software and bots. Please note that Google cannot mask
any content, including email addresses, that are actually on your custom
pages.
- If you have a Google Account and are a Groups member, you can create a
public profile that includes certain personal information, including your
name, geographical location, email address and other user information and
content. When users view your profile, they will see your profile information
as well as links to posts, custom pages, and files that would normally be
accessible to them. If you do not create a profile, only a "masked" version
of your Google Account email address will show with your submitted content.
- Google collects and maintains information about your account activity,
including the groups that you join or manage, lists of other members or invitees
in the groups, messages or topics you track, custom pages you create or edit,
ratings you make, and your preferred settings when using Google Groups.
Uses
- Information and content you post in a Google Group including the header
information, nickname and email address associated with the posting will
be displayed to users who are able to access the group. Similarly, all information
that you enter in your user profile can be viewed by other users. The owners
of a Google Group decide who is in the group and whether a discussion is
public or restricted. As such, groups may include people you do not know.
Use care when posting personal information in a group, particularly sensitive
information such as social security numbers, financial information or home
addresses or phone numbers.
Your choices
- You may update, change, or disable your user profile at any time by going
to your profile page.
- You may request that your own postings be disabled, unsubscribe from a
group or terminate your Google Account. Please see the Groups
Help Center for specific information.
- You also can change your Google Groups settings by signing into the Groups
homepage at any time.
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. For questions concerning the product or your account, please check out the Google Help page.
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