User Content and Conduct Policy

Our policies play an important role in maintaining a positive experience for our users. Please follow these policies when using our products and services ("Services"). When we are notified of a potential policy violation, we may review and take action, including limiting or terminating a user’s access to our Services.

We may modify these policies so please check back here. Also, when applying our policies, we may make exceptions based on artistic, educational, or documentary considerations, or when there are other substantial benefits to the public from not taking action.

1. Illegal Activities

   Do not use our products to engage in illegal activities or promote dangerous and illegal acts.

2. Malicious Products

   Do not transmit viruses, malware, or any other malicious or destructive code. Do not distribute content that harms or interferes with the operation of the networks, servers, or other infrastructure of Google or others.

3. Hate Speech

   Do not distribute content that promotes hatred or violence towards groups of people based on their race or ethnic origin, religion, disability, gender, age, veteran status, or sexual orientation/gender identity.

4. Personal and Confidential Information

   Do not distribute other people’s personal and confidential information, such as credit card numbers, confidential national ID numbers, or account passwords, without their permission.

5. Account Hijacking

   Do not access another user’s account without their permission. Do not use our products for phishing scams.

6. Child Exploitation

   Do not upload or share content that exploits or abuses children. This includes all child sexual abuse imagery (even cartoon images) and all content that presents children in a sexual manner. We will remove such content and take appropriate action, which includes account disable and reporting to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) and law enforcement.

   If you find any content that you think exploits children in this manner, do not +1, reshare or comment on such content, even if your intent is to bring it to Google’s attention. Instead, flag the content through the ‘Report Abuse’ link. If you find content elsewhere on the internet, please contact NCMEC directly.

7. Spam

   Do not spam, including sending unwanted promotional or commercial content, or unwanted or mass solicitation.

   Do not aggressively add people to your circles.

8. Ranking Manipulation

   Do not manipulate ranking or relevancy using techniques like repetitive or misleading keywords or metadata.

9. Sexually Explicit Material

   Do not distribute content that contains nudity, graphic sex acts, or sexually explicit material. Do not drive traffic to commercial pornography sites.

   Your Profile Picture cannot include mature or offensive content. For example, do not use a photo that is a close-up of a person’s buttocks or cleavage.

10. Harassment and Bullying

    Do not harass or bully others. Anyone using Google+ to harass or bully may have the offending content removed or be permanently banned from the site. Online harassment is also illegal in many places and can have serious offline consequences.

11. Violence

    Do not distribute depictions of graphic or gratuitous violence.

12. Impersonation or Deceptive Behavior

    Do not use our products to impersonate.

13. User Profile Name

    To help make it easy for people to connect with you, use the name your friends, family or co-workers usually call you when creating a Google+ profile. For example, if your full legal name is Charles Jones Jr. but you normally use Chuck Jones or Junior Jones, either of those would be acceptable. You can learn more here. For more information about our names requirements for Pages, see our Google+ Pages Terms of Service.

14. Regulated Goods and Services

    While Google+ is a place to discuss many topics, our service is not ready to support the marketing of any regulated products at this time. Do not facilitate the promotion or sale of pharmaceuticals, alcohol, tobacco, fireworks, weapons, or health/medical devices. We may also remove content that offers or promotes the sale of substances that mimic the effects of illegal or regulated drugs.

    Discussion of gambling and gaming strategy is permitted, but do not distribute content that facilitates actual gambling, including online casinos, sports betting, or lotteries.

    Further, we may not allow verification of local Google+ pages for certain products and services such as escort services or other regulated goods.

15. Contests and Promotions

    Do not run contests, sweepstakes, or other such promotions directly on Google+, except by pre-approved means. For additional details about this policy, visit the Contests and Promotions Policy page.

About our Policies and Terms

These policies apply generally to the content you post on our Services. Some Services have their own separate policies that can be found within those Services and apply to your use of them. All Services are governed by their applicable terms of service.

Reporting Potential Issues

If you encounter content or a user that you believe violates the above policies, please report it to us using the “Report Abuse” link (or similarly named link). Learn more about reporting abuse.