You can delete content, products or your whole account, but deleted copies may linger and some data is kept
To delete your information, Google lists these options: delete your content from specific Google services; search for and delete specific items using My Activity; delete specific Google products, including your information associated with those products; or delete your entire Google Account. Google also says that when you delete data it follows a deletion process to remove it from its servers or keep it only in anonymized form, that there may be delays between deletion and when copies are deleted from active and backup systems, and that some data is kept longer when necessary for legitimate business or legal purposes such as security, fraud and abuse prevention or financial record-keeping.
Supporting quotations
To delete your information, you can:
Delete your content from specific Google services
Search for and then delete specific items from your account using
including your information associated with those products
Delete your entire Google Account
we follow a deletion process to make sure that your data is safely and completely removed from our servers or retained only in anonymized form
there may be delays between when you delete something and when copies are deleted from our active and backup systems
And some data we retain for longer periods of time when necessary for legitimate business or legal purposes, such as security, fraud and abuse prevention, or financial record-keeping.
Qualifications & exceptions
Deletion is not described as instant: delays for active and backup copies are acknowledged.
Longer retention for security, fraud and abuse prevention, and financial record-keeping is an exception to deletion.
Retention & Deletion · Company practice
Google keeps data for different periods depending on what it is, how it is used and your settings
Google says it retains data for different periods depending on what the data is, how it is used and how you configure your settings. Some data you can delete whenever you like, such as personal info and content you create or upload, and you can delete saved activity or choose to have it deleted automatically after a set period; Google keeps this data in your account until you remove it or choose to have it removed. Other data is deleted or anonymized automatically after a set period, such as advertising data in server logs. Some data is kept until you delete your Google Account, such as information about how often you use services. And some data is kept longer when necessary for legitimate business or legal purposes such as security, fraud and abuse prevention, or financial record-keeping.
Supporting quotations
We retain the data we collect for different periods of time depending on what it is, how we use it, and how you configure your settings:
Some data you can delete whenever you like
We’ll keep this data in your Google Account until you remove it or choose to have it removed.
Other data is deleted or anonymized automatically after a set period of time, such as advertising data in server logs.
We keep some data until you delete your Google Account, such as information about how often you use our services.
And some data we retain for longer periods of time when necessary for legitimate business or legal purposes, such as security, fraud and abuse prevention, or financial record-keeping.
You can read more about Google’s data retention periods, including how long it takes us to delete your information.
Qualifications & exceptions
The periods are not stated in the policy text; they vary by data type, use and settings.
Auto-delete for saved activity is something you choose to turn on.
Not stated here
The specific retention periods, including how long it takes to delete your information, are on a linked page that is not supplied.
Retention & Deletion · Company practice
After you delete data Google follows a deletion process, and copies may remain in active and backup systems for a while
When you delete data, Google says it follows a deletion process to make sure the data is safely and completely removed from its servers or retained only in anonymized form. It says it tries to protect information from accidental or malicious deletion, and because of this there may be delays between when you delete something and when copies are deleted from its active and backup systems.
Supporting quotations
When you delete data, we follow a deletion process to make sure that your data is safely and completely removed from our servers or retained only in anonymized form.
We try to ensure that our services protect information from accidental or malicious deletion.
there may be delays between when you delete something and when copies are deleted from our active and backup systems
Qualifications & exceptions
The policy gives no timeframe for the delay in this paragraph.
Not stated here
How long deletion from active and backup systems takes is not stated here.