Google Checkout Privacy Policy

June 29, 2006

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

Information we collect

Registration information - When you sign up for Google Checkout, we ask for your personal information so that we can provide you with the service. The information we require to register for the service includes your name, credit or debit card number, card expiration date, card verification number (CVN), address, phone number, and email address. For sellers, we also require you to provide your bank account number, and in some situations, your personal address, your business category, your taxpayer identification number or social security number, and certain information about your sales or transaction volume. This information allows us to process payments and protect users from fraud. In some cases, we may also ask you to send us additional information or to answer additional questions to help verify your information. The information we collect is stored in association with your Google Account.
Information obtained from third parties - In order to protect you from fraud or other misconduct, we may obtain information about you from third parties to verify the information you provide. For example, we may use card authorization and fraud screening services to verify that your credit or debit card information and address match the information that you provided to us. Also, for sellers, we may obtain information about you and your business from a credit bureau or a business information service such as Dun & Bradstreet.
Transaction information - When you use Google Checkout to conduct a transaction, we collect information about each transaction, including the transaction amount, a description provided by the seller of the goods or services being purchased, the names of the seller and buyer, and the type of payment used.

How we use the information we collect

We will not sell or rent your personal information to companies or individuals outside of Google. If you are making a purchase through Google Checkout, we may share portions of your credit card number with the seller to identify the transaction, but we will not share your full credit card number with the seller without your opt-in consent. In addition, we will only use or share your personal information with other companies or individuals outside of Google as described in the Google Privacy Policy and in the following limited circumstances:

As necessary to process your transaction and maintain your account. As with any credit card payment, if you process a credit card transaction through the service, we need to share some information (for example, your name and credit card number) with the banks and other entities in the financial system that process credit card transactions.
To detect, prevent, or otherwise address fraud, security or technical issues,
We may share aggregated non-personally identifiable information with third parties. For example, we may disclose that a certain percentage of our users have a billing address in a particular geographic area, or that a certain percentage of users use a particular type of credit or debit card. However, if we do share this aggregated information, we do not include personally identifiable information without your explicit opt-in consent or in the limited circumstances described above.

Information security

We take appropriate security measures to protect against unauthorized access to or unauthorized alteration, disclosure or destruction of data. These include internal reviews of our data collection, storage and processing practices and security measures, as well as physical and technical security measures to guard against unauthorized access to systems where we store personal data. For example, your credit card number will always be stored in an encrypted form (except when you provide it to us in a communication outside of our web page interface).

The security of your account also depends on keeping your account password confidential, and you should not share your account name or password with anyone. If you do share your account information with a third party, they will have access to your account and your personal information.

For more information about our security practices, please see the main Google Privacy Policy.

Accessing and updating personal information

You can review and update your payment information by logging in to your Google Account and going to the "Purchase History" page, where you can update or remove your address and method of payment. You can also view your previous transaction history on the "Purchase History" page.

You can disable Google Checkout by contacting us. If you do so, your payment information and transaction history will no longer be viewable through Google Checkout. However, in order to meet our reporting and auditing obligations, and to detect, deter, and prevent fraud or other misconduct on our systems, the information will be retained in our systems. If you disable Google Checkout, your personally identifiable information will not be used by Google or shared with third parties except for these purposes. We may delete these records over time if permitted or required by law.

Disabling Google Checkout does not close or cancel your Google Account. For more information about how to manage your Google Account preferences, please click here. This Privacy Policy continues to apply to the personal information we maintain after you disable Google Checkout or close or cancel your Google Account.

Sharing Between Affiliates

We operate the Google Checkout service through a company called Google Payment Corporation ("GPC"), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Google. The information we collect, including information obtained from third parties, is shared between GPC and Google to operate the service. Neither GPC nor Google will share your information with others except as described in this Privacy Policy.

Under federal law, you have the right to opt out of certain sharing between affiliated companies such as GPC and Google. Specifically, you may choose to opt out of:

The sharing between GPC and Google of information that does not pertain to your transactions or experiences with Google Checkout (also called "non-transactional information", e.g., information we may obtain from third parties to verify your identity), and
The use by Google of information shared between GPC and Google to promote Google products and services.

Please remember, regardless of whether you choose to opt out of this sharing or not, we will never sell or rent your personal information, and we will not share your personal information with anyone outside of GPC and Google except as described in this Privacy Policy.

If you don't want us to share non-transactional data between GPC and Google, please click here.

If you don't want us to use any information shared between GPC and Google to promote Google products and services to you, please click here.

Also, if you wish to exercise either of the above options, you can let us know through our contact page.

Web Beacons

Some of the merchants that accept Google Checkout use "web beacons" for the purposes of analyzing or auditing their website or transactions. A web beacon is an electronic image in a web page, usually consisting of a single-pixel (1 x 1 GIF), that allows the website to analyze user traffic.

At the request of the merchant, we may serve web beacons on the merchant's behalf so that the merchant can analyze or audit their web traffic. We do not provide any personal information to merchants when serving web beacons on their behalf. In addition, we will provide you with a notice when a web beacon is served within Google Checkout. For more information on web beacons, click here.

Changes to this policy

Please note that this Privacy Policy may change from time to time. We will not reduce your rights under this Policy without your explicit consent. We will post any Policy changes on this page and, if the changes are significant, we will provide a more prominent notice (including notification in your account interface or email notification). Each version of this Policy will be identified at the top of the page by its effective date, and we will also keep prior versions of this Privacy Policy in an archive for your review.

If you have any questions about this Policy, please feel free to contact us through our website or write to us at Privacy Matters, c/o Google Inc., 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, California, 94043 USA.