The programme policies below apply to the content that you post on Google Photos, comments on Google Photos and print content through Google Photos. Google Photos provides storage and automatic organisation of your photos and videos at no cost. The policies play an important role in maintaining a positive experience for everyone using Google products.
We need to curb abuses that threaten our ability to provide these services and we ask that everyone abides by the policies below to help us achieve this goal. After we are notified of a potential policy violation, we may review the content and take action, including restricting access to the content, removing the content, refusing to print the content and limiting or terminating a user’s access to Google products.
We may take action on accounts that go above storage quota limits. For example, we may reject new uploads, compress existing content or delete content if you exceed your storage quota or fail to obtain sufficient additional storage. Read more about storage quotas here.
When applying these policies, we may make exceptions based on educational, documentary, scientific or artistic considerations, or where there are other substantial benefits to the public from not taking action on the content.
Make sure that you check from time to time, as these policies may change. Please also refer to Google's Terms of Service for more information. Beyond the policies listed below, note that several products and features may have additional policies and terms. For example, Google profile photos cannot include mature or offensive content, such as a photo that is a close-up of a person’s buttocks or cleavage.
Report abuse
If you believe that someone is violating the policies found below, please report it to us using the 'Report abuse' link (or similarly named link). Learn more about reporting abuse on Google Photos and about additional steps that you can take to block someone on Google Photos.
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.
Programme policies
Account hijackingDo 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 behaviour towards children such as:
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'Child grooming' (for example, befriending a child online to facilitate, either online or offline, sexual contact and/or exchanging sexual imagery with that child);
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'Sextortion' (for example, threatening or blackmailing a child by using real or alleged access to a child's intimate images);
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Sexualisation 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
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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 that 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 or you have concerns a child is being or was being endangered on our products, you can report the behaviour to Google.
Do not impersonate a person or organisation or misrepresent yourself. This includes impersonating any person or organisations that 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 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.
Misleading content may be allowed in an educational, documentary, scientific or artistic context, but please be mindful to provide enough information to help people understand this context. In some cases, no amount of context will allow this content to remain on our platforms.
Known violent non-state organisations 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 organisations, promoting terrorist acts, inciting violence or celebrating attacks by violent non-state organisations. Depending upon the content, we may also take action against the user. Content related to violent non-state organisations 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.
Last updated: September 2021
Additional policies
Content distributionAll images in printed products should comply with legal regulations and content policies. We therefore do not allow certain types of images to be printed in our products. We will not print any products that contain images that violate the following policies.
Please note that any content submitted to be printed in a product may be reviewed to determine whether it violates this policy.
Dangerous and illegal activities
We will not print content that is an illegal activity or that promotes 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, we draw the line when the content directly facilitates harm or encourages illegal activity.
Below are examples of what we do not allow in printed products:
- Images that infringe on anyone else's legal rights, including copyright
- Images that depict or include instruction on dangerous or illegal acts
Harassment, bullying and threats
We will not print content that harasses, bullies or threatens others. We also won’t print content that engages or incites others in these activities. This includes singling someone out for malicious abuse, threatening someone with serious harm, sexualising 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. 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.
Below are examples of what we do not allow in printed products:
- Content that harasses, intimidates or bullies an individual or group of individuals
Hate speech
We will not print 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 marginalisation.
Below are examples of what we do not allow in printed products:
- Content that incites 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 other characteristic that is associated with systemic discrimination or marginalisation
Sexually explicit content
We will not print content that contains sexually explicit material. Nudity for educational, documentary, scientific, or artistic purposes and non-sexual nudity may be permitted. We never allow content that sexually exploits children.
Below are examples of what we do not allow in printed products:
- Images containing graphic sexual acts intended to arouse, including depictions of genitalia, pornography or illustrations
- Content promoting underage, non-consensual or other illegal sexual themes, whether simulated or real
- Content promoting the sexual exploitation of minors
Violent organisations and movements
Known violent non-state organisations 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 organisations, promoting terrorist acts, inciting violence or celebrating attacks by violent non-state organisations. Depending upon the content, we may also take action against the user. Content related to violent non-state organisations 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.
Last updated: September 2021