We're updating our Terms of Service on 22 May 2024, so we wanted to let you know ahead of time.

These changes won't affect the way that you use our services, but they should help make it easier for you to understand what to expect from Google – and what we expect from you – as you use our services.

You can see the new terms here. We have also summarised the changes at the bottom of this email.

What do I need to do?

• If you're under the age required to manage your own Google Account:
  • We have sent this email to your parent or guardian so that they can help you understand our updates better.
  • Please discuss this email with your parent or guardian to decide if you need to do anything different with your account.
• If you're a parent or guardian, and you allow your child to use the services:
  • Please review the updates to our terms with your child and help them decide whether they need to make any changes to their account.
  • Please remember that these terms apply to you and that you're responsible for your child's activity on the services.
• If you're the administrator of a Google Workspace corporate or educational account, and you've enabled your users to access Google additional services:
  • Our new Terms of Service won't affect the Google Workspace agreement between Google and your organisation. These new terms will only apply to those users to whom you've given access to Google additional services. You can always manage whether your users have access to Google additional services, and which ones, in your Admin console.
• If you're a Google Workspace reseller whose customers have enabled their users to access Google additional services:
  • Our new Terms of Service won't affect your Google Workspace agreement with your customers. These new terms will only apply to your customers' users who've been given access to Google additional services. Your customers can always manage whether their users have access to Google additional services, and which ones, in their Admin console.
• If you're any other user of the services:
  • Please read this email to understand our updated terms and your options for further action.
  • If you agree to the new terms, no further action is needed.

What's changing?

You can review the new Google Terms of Service here. At a glance, here's what this update covers:

• Generative AI terms. We're moving our existing Generative AI additional terms to our main Terms of Service and adding other AI-related clarifications. For example – we won't claim ownership over original content generated by our AI-powered services.
• More clarity on abusive activity. We're providing more examples and details of the kinds of abuse and interference with our services that aren't allowed.
• More details on limitations of liability. For users outside the US, we're adding clarifications to our limitations of liability and indemnity sections to avoid any misunderstandings in light of local laws or customs.
• More clarity on disputes. We're clarifying that if you violate our terms, our remedies aren't limited to suspension or termination of your access to the services, but may include other remedies under applicable law. If problems or disputes arise between us about these terms, you'll have the opportunity to describe the issues and address them.
• Updates to reflect how our services work. We're adding language about how our services work, and updating certain Google service brand names that have changed over time.
• For users based in the European Economic Area (EEA) only:
  • In addition to the changes described above, we're adding more explanatory text to help you understand the legal concept of 'guarantees' under EU and local law.
  • For more details, please see this summary of key changes to the EEA versions of our terms.

If you don't agree with the new terms, you should remove your content and stop using the services. You can also end your relationship with us at any time, without penalty, by closing your Google Account.

Thank you for using Google services!

Every day, Google works hard to keep you and your private information safe and secure by preventing unauthorised access to your Google Account with our built-in security protections. And keeping you safe means having strong privacy practices across our products that minimise how long we store your personal files and any data associated with them. We want to protect your private information and prevent any unauthorised access to your account even if you're no longer using our services.

Therefore, we are updating the inactivity period for a Google Account to two years across all our products and services. This change starts rolling out today and will apply to any Google Account that's been inactive, meaning that it has not been signed in to or used within a two-year period. An inactive account and any content in it will be eligible for deletion from 1 December 2023.

What this means for you:

• These changes do not impact you unless you have been inactive in your Google Account for two years or have not used your account to sign in to any Google service for over two years.
• While the changes go into effect today, the earliest that we would enforce any account deletion would be December 2023.
• If your account is considered inactive, we will send several reminder emails to both you and your recovery emails (if any have been provided) before we take any action or delete any account content. These reminder emails will go out at least eight months before any action is taken on your account.
• After a Google Account is deleted, the Gmail address for the deleted account cannot be used again when creating a new Google Account.

How to keep your account active?

The simplest way to keep a Google Account active is to sign in to the account at least once every two years. If you have signed in to your Google Account recently in the last two years, your account is considered active and will not be deleted.

Other ways to keep your account active include:

• Reading or sending an email
• Using Google Drive
• Watching a YouTube video
• Sharing a photo
• Downloading an app
• Using Google Search
• Use Sign in with Google to sign in to a third-party app or service

There are some exceptions to this policy. Examples include: A Google Account with YouTube channels, videos or comments; an account that has a gift card with a monetary balance; or an account that has a published application, for example, one that hosts an app on the Google Play Store. Other exceptions to this policy are available here.

Google also offers tools to help manage your Google Account and provide options to back up your data, including the ability to download your data using Google Takeout, and allowing you to plan for what happens to your data if you're inactive for a specific period of time with the Inactive Account Manager.

Our priority is to make it as easy as possible for you to keep your account active, if you want to, and we'll ensure that you have adequate notice before any account is impacted by this change. So before an account is deleted, Google will send email notifications to the Google Account and its recovery email (if one has been provided). You should verify that your recovery email is up to date.

Learn more

• Inactive Google Account policy
• How Google retains data that we collect
• Updating our inactive account policies (only available in English)

Thank you,
The Google Account Team

On 5 January 2022, we're making some changes to our Terms of Service. These changes won't affect the way that you use Google services, but they'll make it easier for you to understand what to expect from Google – and what we expect from you – as you use our services.

You can review the new terms here. At a glance, here's what this update means for you:

• More clarity on what you can expect from Google and what we expect from you: We're providing more examples to describe the mutually respectful conduct that we expect from all of our users.
• Improved readability: While our terms remain a legal document, we've done our best to make them easier to understand, including reorganising some topics so that they're easier to find.

If you use Family Link to manage a Google Account for someone else, please take some time to talk to them about these changes.

Thank you for using Google!