Privacy Notice

October 1, 2011

The Google Privacy Policy describes how we treat personal information when you use Google's products and services, including information provided when you use Picasa Web Albums. In addition, the following describes our privacy practices that are specific to Picasa Web Albums.

Personal information

• You need a Google Account and Google Profile to set up an account on Picasa Web Albums and upload photos, videos, and related content (“photos”). 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.
• You may view photos posted on Picasa Web Albums by other users without registering for an account.
• When you use Picasa Web Albums, Google's servers automatically record certain information about your use. Similar to other web services, Google records information such as account activity (including storage usage and number of log-ins), data displayed or clicked on (including UI links); and other log information (including browser type, IP-address, date and time of access, cookie ID, and referrer URL).

Uses

• Google maintains and processes your photos and account information in order to provide the Picasa Web Albums service to you and to operate and improve our services.

Information sharing and onward transfer

• Users who view your albums will see information about you including your photos, your name, a link to your profile, and your Linked Galleries. Your selected username may appear as part of the page URL.
• Your public photos will be connected with your Google Profile.
• If other users add you to their Favorites Lists, those users will see a notification when you upload new photos to a public album. Viewers of their Public Galleries will also see links to your Public Gallery through the Linked Galleries section on their pages if they have opted to do so.
• We may recommend your account to other people based on your relationship with other users.
• Your albums may be visible in Google services to users who have access to view them. Your public albums may also be indexed and discoverable in third party services, such as search engines.
• Users may comment on or “like” content in your albums; these comments or likes can be seen by anyone who visits your albums.
• We do not sell, rent or otherwise share your personal information with any third parties except in the limited circumstances described in the Google Privacy Policy, such as when we believe we are required to do so by law.
• Google may review the content of an Album if a user complaint is received, or if we have reason to believe that the account is used in violation of our Program Policies.

Your choices

• You may change Account information and other settings by clicking the "Settings" link in the top right hand corner of a Picasa Web Albums page.
• If you add someone to your favorites, that person will be notified.
• If you designate an album "Public on the web", anyone who visits your public gallery will see your album. If you designate an album "Limited, anyone with the link," those photos will not appear in your public gallery but can be seen by someone who knows the URL. If you designate an album "Limited," and you grant a particular user access to that album, then anyone who visits that album must enter a username and password before it can be viewed. If you designate an album “Only You,” the album will only be visible to you when signed into your account.
• You may organize, modify or delete your pictures, albums, and associated information such as captions and location data following instructions in the FAQ.
• When you delete content or accounts in Picasa Web Albums, residual copies of deleted photos, associated data, or accounts may take up to 60 days to be deleted from Picasa Web Albums’ active servers and may remain in our backup systems.

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. If you have additional questions, please contact us any time. Or write to us at:

Privacy Matters
c/o Google Inc.
1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
Mountain View CA 94043 (USA)