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August 2008
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 Desktop. In addition, the following describes our privacy practices that are specific to Google Desktop.
Information that we collect
- The Google Desktop application indexes and stores versions of your files and other computer activity, such as email, chats and web history. These versions may also be mixed with your web search results to produce results pages for you that integrate relevant content from your computer and information from the web. Your computer's content is not sent to Google without your explicit permission.
- Your copy of Google Desktop includes a unique application number. When you install or uninstall Google Desktop, the unique application number and a message indicating whether the installation or uninstallation succeeded are sent to Google. When you install or remove a Google Gadget, a unique gadget identifier is sent to Google.
- Google Desktop will check for the latest version of both the application and your gadgets to ensure that you have the full feature set provided by Google. When checking for updates to the application, the current version number and the unique application number are sent to Google. When checking for updates to your gadgets, the unique gadget identifiers are sent to Google.
- If you choose to opt in to "Improve Google Desktop" by sending crash reports and non-personal usage data, Google Desktop may collect a limited amount of non-personal information together with your application number from your computer and send it to Google. This includes summary information such as your operating system type, the number of searches that you do, the time that it takes for you to see your results and the application crash reports that we'll use to make the programme better.
- If you have Safe Browsing enabled and visit a malicious/phishing website, then the referring URL will be sent to Google if you opt in to send back malware/phishing URLs from the Safe Browsing interstitial page.
- If you choose to enable personalised features for a Google-created gadget, Google Desktop may send non-personal usage data to Google in order to provide personalised content, such as personalised news.
- If you choose to enable Search Across Computers, Google will securely transmit copies of your indexed files to Google servers in order to provide the feature. Google treats the contents of your indexed files as personal information in accordance with the Google Privacy Policy.
- If you choose to save gadget settings and content, Google will securely transmit copies of your gadget settings and content to Google servers in order to provide the feature. Google treats the gadget settings and contents of your indexed files as personal information in accordance with the Google Privacy Policy.
Uses
- We use this information to deliver the best possible service to you, such as improving the Google Desktop user experience and providing automatic updates of new versions of Desktop.
Your choices
- You can choose to opt in to "Improve Google Desktop" during installation and you can change your mind at any time by accessing the Desktop options menu.
- You can choose to enable personalised features during or after a gadget installation. You can opt out of a gadget's personalisation features by disabling personalisation (if the gadget provides that option) or by removing the gadget completely.
- You can choose to opt in to store your content and settings from individual gadgets on Google's servers so that your gadget settings may be backed up and maintained when using different computers.
- Safe Browsing is enabled by default to provide you with an interstitial notice whenever you visit a known malware/phishing website. You can choose to disable this feature at any time in Desktop's options.
- Google Desktop includes some functionality which can be set by your administrator. For example, your administrator may choose to prevent Google from receiving the unique application number that is associated with your copy of Google Desktop or the personalised information and aggregate usage data described above.
- You can uninstall the Google Desktop software through the "Add or Remove Programs" Control Panel at any time. When you uninstall the software, you can choose to delete the Google Desktop index and the information stored by that Desktop, as well as all desktop gadgets. If you choose to delete this information, the original files and applications remain unaffected.
- If you cancel your Google Account or uninstall Google Desktop, the files indexed in the Search Across Computers feature will no longer be accessible through Google Desktop and may remain on our servers for up to 10 days before being deleted.
More information
Google adheres to the US Safe Harbour privacy principles. For more information about the Safe Harbour framework or our registration, see the Department of Commerce's website.
Further information about Google Desktop is available here.
For more information about our privacy practices, go to the full privacy policy. For questions concerning the product or your account, please have a look at the Google Help page.
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