Google Wave Privacy Policy
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 Wave. The following Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) addresses questions about how we collect and use your information when you use Google Wave. Although we may change this FAQ from time to time, we won't make changes that significantly impact your privacy without letting you know in advance.
What is Google Wave?
Google Wave is a web application that lets you easily communicate and collaborate with others. In designing Google Wave, the team rethought how you can use the web to have conversations, share photos and files, work with others on documents, chat in real time, organize your information, post to blogs and more. While reading this privacy FAQ, it's important to remember that Google Wave is about communicating and sharing information.
What information about me does Google collect when I sign up to use Google Wave?
To create a Google Wave to communicate with others, you must sign up for a Google Account. Unlike some other web services, Google only requires minimal data when a person opens an account: the user’s name; a security question; a login name; and a password. People can even sign in using a pseudonym if they want, since we don’t ask for proof of identity.
What information is collected when I use Google Wave?
When you use Google Wave, we collect information about your account activity; your interaction with user interface elements and links; your IP address; and other log information. For more information about what is included in Google’s logs, see our Privacy FAQ. If you choose to store messages, attachments, and contact information in Google Wave, we do, so we can provide the Google Wave service to you. You can edit your contact list, or delete contacts entirely. You may choose to use other Google services in conjunction with Google Wave (see our Privacy Center for more information about those services).
What does Google do with that information?
Google uses your information to provide Google Wave to you and to improve our services. For example, Google’s computers may use the information we collect to allow you to share wave content that you've created with others, to format and to display messages to you, to prevent unsolicited bulk waves, and to back up waves.
In what limited circumstances does Google share my information with other companies or individuals outside of Google?
There are only certain limited circumstances when Google allows access to your information. We may give access to:
- Subsidiaries or other trusted businesses that help us provide our services to you (we make sure they promise to keep your data private);
- Law enforcement or others when we believe we are required to do so by law;
- Others as necessary to enforce the Terms of Service or our policies, to protect against harm to Google or others, or to prevent or address fraud, security or technical issues.
We may also share aggregated non-personal information. This information does not identity you individually. For example, we may share information describing that a certain number of users are accessing Google Wave from a particular geographic region.
What are Google Wave extensions, and how do they affect my privacy?
You can also choose to install Google Wave extensions, which are essentially add-on programs that help expand how people can use waves. Some of these extensions are used to share information. So, if you choose to install a Google Wave extension developed by a third-party, the third-party may collect additional information depending on how that particular wave extension works. For example, if you choose to install an extension that allows a wave to be used to add public comments to a blog, then information that people contribute to the wave will be sent to the blog webpage for publication. If you choose to install a Google Wave extension, or if you choose to participate in a Google Wave that contains a Google Wave extension, then information could be shared with third-parties (or even the public), depending on how that particular Google Wave extension works. (To learn more about Google Wave extensions, click here).
What about Google Wave extensions that are created by third-party (non-Google) developers? What information can they see?
If you choose to install a Google Wave extension, it may have access to some or all of the information in your Wave account. Also, if you add a Wave extension to a Wave, the Wave extension will have access to all the content of that Wave and limited information about the Wave participants (name, Wave address, and avatar). So, if you choose to install an extension that is created by a third-party developer (generally someone that doesn't work for Google), you need to check with that developer to determine how that extension works, what information is collected by that extension, and how it's shared.
If I'm a participant on a Wave that includes a third-party extension, what information could be shared as a result of that extension?
Any Wave participant can add a extension to the Wave. The extension will have the same access to wave content as wave participants. For example, if you'd like to publish photos to a website that are contained in a wave, you could use an extension to help do this - the extension would have access to all the photos in that particular wave, regardless of who added them. This is similar to how any recipient of images attached to an email message could post the images to an online photo-sharing website.
Who else can see my information?
As a participant on a wave, your Google Wave address, the name associated with that address, and other information that you have opted to share with others is visible to all participants of that wave. If you select a picture (avatar) for your account, it will be visible to other Google Wave users. To protect the privacy of your account, keep your password secret and be sure you log out when you finish using Google Wave.
Does Google Wave contain advertisements?
We have no plans to include advertisements, but we might consider doing so in the future. If we do, we won't share your personal information with an advertiser without your consent, and we will update this privacy FAQ with the change.
What happens when I remove myself from a Wave?
Any user may remove themselves from a Wave. This will immediately remove it from your account view. All other participants on that Wave will continue to have access to that Wave (including content you contributed) and see that you are no longer a participant. This is similar to how email works: even when you delete your copy of an email message, others may still have it in their inboxes.
What happens when I delete a Wave? How long does Google keep my information?
What happens when I delete my Google Account? How long does Google keep my information?
Any Waves which have other participants will to continue to exist in the Google Wave system, including all of the content that you provided in those Waves. Any Wave for which you are the only participant will be deleted from the system within 60 days and may remain in our offline backup systems.
Will my Google Wave account be deleted if I don’t use it?
Google may delete your account after 9 months of inactivity.