Abuse Program Policies & Enforcement

The program policies below apply to Drive, Docs, Sheets, Slides, Forms, and new Sites. These policies play an important role to maintain a positive experience for everyone that uses Google products.

We need to curb abuses that threaten our ability to provide these services, and we ask that everyone abide by the policies below to help us achieve this goal. We may review content for violations of these policies and take action. This review includes access restriction of content, removal of content, and limitation or termination of a user’s access to Google products. Any restrictions pursuant to these policies apply globally unless noted otherwise, and content restrictions will remain in place unless successfully appealed.

When these policies apply, Google may make exceptions based on artistic, educational, documentary, or scientific considerations, or where there are other substantial benefits to the public to not take action on the content.

Google may take action on accounts that go above storage quota limits. For example, we may reject new uploads, compress content that exists, or delete content if you exceed your storage quota or fail to obtain sufficient additional storage. Read more about storage quotas here.

Be sure to check back from time to time, as these policies may change. You can refer to Google's Terms of Service for more information.

If you believe that someone is violating the policies found below, report abuse.

To report copyright infringement or other legal issues, please use this tool, which will guide you through the process of reporting content that you believe warrants removal from Google's services based on applicable laws.

Do not access another user’s account without their permission. We may take appropriate action if we are notified of account hijacking, which may include removing access to some of our products or disabling your Google Account.

Use the product to remain active. Activity includes accessing the product’s content or storing new content on the product at least once every 2 years. We may take action on inactive accounts, which may include deleting your content from the product. Learn more here.

Do not create, upload, or distribute content that exploits or abuses children. This includes all child sexual abuse materials. To report content on a Google product that may exploit a child, click “Report abuse.”  If you find content elsewhere on the internet, please contact the appropriate agency in your country directly.

More broadly, Google prohibits the use of our products to endanger children. This includes but is not limited to predatory behavior towards children such as:

• ‘Child grooming’ (for example, befriending a child online to facilitate, either online or offline, sexual contact and/or exchanging sexual imagery with that child);
• ‘Sextortion’ (for example, threatening or blackmailing a child by using real or alleged access to a child’s intimate images); 
• Sexualization of a minor (for example, imagery that depicts, encourages or promotes the sexual abuse of children or the portrayal of children in a manner that could result in the sexual exploitation of children); and 
• Trafficking of a child (for example, advertising or solicitation of a child for commercial sexual exploitation).  

We will remove such content and take appropriate action, which may include reporting to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, limiting access to product features, and disabling accounts. If you believe a child is in danger of or has been subject to abuse, exploitation, or trafficking, contact the police immediately. If you have already made a report to the police and still need help, you can report the behavior to Google.

Do not engage in actions intended to bypass our policies, subvert restrictions placed on your account, or distribute content removed in other Google products.

This includes but is not limited to:

• Creating or using multiple accounts or other methods intended to engage in a behavior that was previously prohibited.
• Publicly sharing apps suspended by Google Play Developer Policies.
• Publicly sharing videos that do not comply with the YouTube Community Guidelines.

We may take appropriate action if we are notified of circumvention, which may include restricting the sharing of files, removing access to some of our products or disabling your Google Account.

Do not use this product to engage in illegal activities or to promote activities, goods, services, or information that cause serious and immediate harm to people or animals. While we permit general information for educational, documentary, scientific, or artistic purposes about this content, we draw the line when the content directly facilitates harm or encourages illegal activity. We will take appropriate action if we are notified of unlawful activities, which may include reporting you to the relevant authorities, removing access to some of our products, or disabling your Google Account.

Do not deceive, mislead, or confuse users for financial gain or personal harm. These harms include providing instructions on, recruiting for, or facilitating scams and fraud. Deceptive content includes, but isn’t limited to, fake reviews, “get rich quick” schemes, advance fee, romance, sweepstakes, and investment scams.

Do not harass, bully, or threaten others. We also don’t allow this product to be used to engage or incite others in these activities. This includes singling someone out for malicious abuse, threatening someone with serious harm, sexualizing someone in an unwanted way, exposing private information of someone else that could be used to carry out threats, disparaging or belittling targets of violence or tragedy, inciting others to carry out these activities, or harassing someone in other ways. Keep in mind that online harassment is illegal in many places and can have serious offline consequences for both the harasser and the target. We may take appropriate action if we are notified of threats of harm or other dangerous situations, which may include reporting you to the relevant authorities, removing access to some of our products, or disabling your Google Account.

Do not engage in hate speech. Hate speech is content that promotes or condones violence against or has the primary purpose of inciting hatred against an individual or group on the basis of their race or ethnic origin, religion, disability, age, nationality, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, or any other characteristic that is associated with systemic discrimination or marginalization.

Do not impersonate a person or organization or misrepresent yourself. This includes impersonating any person or organizations you don’t represent; or providing misleading information about a user/site’s identity, qualifications, ownership, purpose, products, services, or business.

This also includes content or accounts misrepresenting or concealing their ownership or primary purpose such as misrepresenting or intentionally concealing your country of origin or other material details about yourself when directing content about politics, social issues, or matters of public concern to users in a country other than your own. We do allow parody, satire, and the use of pseudonyms or pen names -- just avoid content that is likely to mislead your audience about your true identity.

Do not distribute content that deceives, misleads, or confuses users. This includes:

Misleading content related to civic and democratic processes: content that is demonstrably false and could significantly undermine participation or trust in civic or democratic processes. This includes information about public voting procedures, political candidate eligibility based on age / birthplace, election results, or census participation that contradicts official government records. It also includes incorrect claims that a political figure or government official has died, been involved in an accident, or is suffering from a sudden serious illness.

Misleading content related to harmful conspiracy theories: content that promotes or lends credibility to beliefs that individuals or groups are systematically committing acts that cause widespread harm. This content is contradicted by substantial evidence and has resulted in or incites violence.

Misleading content related to harmful health practices: misleading health or medical content that promotes or encourages others to engage in practices that may lead to serious physical or emotional harm to individuals, or serious public health harm.

Manipulated media: media that has been technically manipulated or doctored in a way that misleads users and may pose a serious risk of egregious harm.

 

Do not store or distribute private nude, sexually explicit, or intimate images or videos without the subject’s consent. If someone has sent a private nude, sexually explicit, or intimate image or video of you, please report it to us here.

Do not store or distribute other people’s personal or confidential information without authorization. ​This includes the use of sensitive information, such as U.S. Social Security numbers, bank account numbers, credit card numbers, images of signatures, and personal health documents. In most cases where this information is broadly available elsewhere on the internet or in public records, like national ID numbers listed on a government website, we generally don’t process enforcement actions.

Do not use this product for phishing. This includes soliciting or collecting sensitive data such as passwords, financial details, and social security numbers. 

Do not sell, advertise, or facilitate the sale of regulated goods and services. Regulated goods and services include alcohol, gambling, pharmaceuticals, unapproved supplements, tobacco, fireworks, weapons, or health/medical devices.

Do not distribute content that contains sexually explicit material, such as nudity, graphic sex acts, and pornographic material. This includes driving traffic to commercial pornography sites. We allow nudity for educational, documentary, scientific, or artistic purposes.

Do not spam. This may include unwanted promotional or commercial content, unwanted content that is created by an automated program, unwanted repetitive content, nonsensical content, or anything that appears to be a mass solicitation.

Do not abuse this product and do not harm, degrade, or negatively affect the operation of networks, devices, or other infrastructure of Google or others. This includes degrading, disabling, or negatively interfering with any aspect of the product or its services. We may take appropriate action if we are notified of system interference and abuse, which may include removing access to some of our products or disabling your Google Account.

Do not store or distribute images of minors without explicit consent from the child's parent, guardian, or legal representative. If someone has stored or distributed an image of a minor without necessary consent, please report it to us here.

Do not store or distribute violent or gory content involving real-life people or animals that’s primarily intended to be shocking, sensational, or gratuitous. This includes ultra-graphic violence, such as dismemberment or close-up footage of mutilated corpses. Graphic material, such as content containing significant amounts of blood, may be allowed in an educational, documentary, scientific, or artistic context, but please be mindful to provide enough information to help people understand the context. In some cases, content may be so violent or shocking that no amount of context will allow that content to remain on our platforms. Lastly, don't encourage others to commit specific acts of violence.

Known violent non-state organizations and movements are not permitted to use this product for any purpose. Do not distribute content that facilitates or promotes the activities of these groups, such as recruiting, coordinating online or offline activities, sharing manuals or other materials that could facilitate harm, promoting ideologies of violent non-state organizations, promoting terrorist acts, inciting violence, or celebrating attacks by violent non-state organizations. Depending upon the content, we may also take action against the user. Content related to violent non-state organizations may be allowed in an educational, documentary, scientific, or artistic context, but please be mindful to provide enough information to help people understand the context.

Policies for the template gallery

• to reproduce the Gallery Submission;
• to create and reproduce derivative works of the Gallery Submission;
• to display publicly and distribute copies of the Gallery Submission;
• to display publicly and distribute copies of derivative works of the Gallery Submission.

You agree that your license to Google end users will be perpetual. Furthermore, for the avoidance of doubt, Google reserves, and you grant Google, the right to syndicate the Gallery Submission submitted by you through Google Docs and use that Gallery Submission in connection with any of the Services offered by Google. You retain the right to stop distributing the Gallery Submission through the Google Docs Content Galleries at any time; provided, however that any such election will not serve to withdraw the licenses granted to Google end users under these Terms of Service. In order to stop distributing the Gallery Submission through the Google Docs Content Galleries, you must utilize the removal functions provided within the Service, in which case the Gallery Submission removal will be effective within a reasonable amount of time.

You represent and warrant that (a) you own or have obtained the necessary legal rights to provide all Gallery Submissions you submit through Google Docs, and will maintain these rights for as long as the Gallery Submission is available to Google end users; and (b) all of the Gallery Submissions you submit through Google Docs abide by the posted Program Policies.

Google claims no ownership over any Gallery Submission you submit through Google Docs. You retain copyright and any other rights, including all intellectual property rights, you already hold in the Gallery Submission. You agree that you are responsible for protecting and enforcing those rights and that Google has no obligation to do so on your behalf.

You agree that you are solely responsible for (and that Google has no responsibility to you or to any third party for) any Gallery Submission that you submit. Google is not in any way responsible for the subsequent use or misuse by Google end users who access your Gallery Submission.

Google reserves the right to remove any or all Gallery Submissions at its sole discretion.

How Google can use your template submissions

If you choose to submit Content to become part of the Content Galleries, you direct and authorize Google and its affiliates to host, link to, and otherwise incorporate your Gallery Submission into Google Docs, and you grant Google and its end users a worldwide, royalty-free, non-exclusive license to exercise the rights in the Gallery Submission, as stated below:

• to reproduce the Gallery Submission;
• to create and reproduce derivative works of the Gallery Submission;
• to display publicly and distribute copies of the Gallery Submission;
• to display publicly and distribute copies of derivative works of the Gallery Submission.

You agree that your license to Google end users will be perpetual. Furthermore, for the avoidance of doubt, Google reserves, and you grant Google, the right to syndicate the Gallery Submission submitted by you through Google Docs and use that Gallery Submission in connection with any of the Services offered by Google. You retain the right to stop distributing the Gallery Submission through the Google Docs Content Galleries at any time; provided, however that any such election will not serve to withdraw the licenses granted to Google end users under these Terms of Service. In order to stop distributing the Gallery Submission through the Google Docs Content Galleries, you must utilize the removal functions provided within the Service, in which case the Gallery Submission removal will be effective within a reasonable amount of time.

You represent and warrant that (a) you own or have obtained the necessary legal rights to provide all Gallery Submissions you submit through Google Docs, and will maintain these rights for as long as the Gallery Submission is available to Google end users; and (b) all of the Gallery Submissions you submit through Google Docs abide by the posted Program Policies.

Google claims no ownership over any Gallery Submission you submit through Google Docs. You retain copyright and any other rights, including all intellectual property rights, you already hold in the Gallery Submission. You agree that you are responsible for protecting and enforcing those rights and that Google has no obligation to do so on your behalf.

You agree that you are solely responsible for (and that Google has no responsibility to you or to any third party for) any Gallery Submission that you submit. Google is not in any way responsible for the subsequent use or misuse by Google end users who access your Gallery Submission.

Google reserves the right to remove any or all Gallery Submissions at its sole discretion.

Read the complete Google Terms of Service.

Respect copyright laws. Do not share copyrighted content without authorization or provide links to sites where people can obtain unauthorized downloads of copyrighted content. It is our policy to respond to clear notices of alleged copyright infringement. Repeated infringement of intellectual property rights, including copyright, will result in account termination. If you see a violation of Google's copyright policies, report copyright infringement.

Google Drive allows you to store, share, and stream video content, but should not be used as a replacement for a content distribution network. For large-scale public streaming, YouTube is a better fit. Google Drive will restrict usage when it appears that it's being used for large-scale public streaming. Repeated violations may result in additional action, including terminating your account or ability to use Google Drive.

Translations of our policies are provided for your convenience. If there is a conflict between the text of this policy and the text of the English language version of the policy, the text of the English language version of the policy will take precedence.