Chromecast, Google TV Streamer, Google Nest and your privacy

When you use Google products, you're trusting us with your information. Google is committed to keeping your data private and safe.

The Google Privacy Policy applies to all Google services, including the Google Home app and Google Nest, Google Home, Chromecast, and Google TV Streamer devices. The Google Nest Privacy Help Center article provides more details about how Google Nest connected home devices and services work, and how we collect and use data when you use these devices and services.

Information your device may send to Google servers when you choose to share device stats and crash reports

Here's what information is sent to Google servers when you choose to share device stats and crash reports for a particular Google Nest device using the "Help improve your device" setting:

• Device performance and reliability information
• Usage stats and information
• Crash reports and other information

This applies to:

• Google Nest and Google Home devices
• Google TV Streamer (4K)
• Chromecast with Google TV
• Chromecast and Chromecast Ultra devices
• Chromecast Audio devices
• Devices that work with Google Cast (except for Android TV devices)
• Google Assistant speakers
• Charging Speaker Dock

Go to the Android Help Center for stats and reporting information on: Android TV devices that work with Google Cast, Chromecast with Google TV, and Google TV Streamer.

Go to the Pixel Tablet Help Center for stats and reporting information on the Pixel Tablet.

Note: This "Help improve your device" setting does not apply to your usage of the Google Home app using your Google Account. To understand what data the Google Home app collects and how it is used, read the Google Privacy Policy and the Google Nest Privacy Help Center article. You can manage your Google Account settings, including your Web & App Activity setting, at account.google.com.

Device performance and reliability information

• Playback quality. This gives us information about the number of rebuffers and playback resolution of media and camera streams so that we can identify performance issues in either our or our partners' services.
• Wi-Fi stability. This tells us about the stability and quality of your device's Wi-Fi network connection.
• Communication errors. This gives us helpful information around how reliably your device is communicating with our and our partners' services.
• Discovery success rates. This tells us how reliably Cast-enabled apps can discover Google streaming devices, Google Nest, and Google Home devices on your local network, along with helpful details about any errors that might be causing the failures.
• Latency. We measure how long it takes to perform certain actions, such as launching a media application or initiating a camera stream, and how long it takes for our servers or hardware to respond to your queries and carry out your requests.
• Sound and mic quality metrics. This tells us how well our Google Home Smart Sound features are working, along with statistics around volume settings and microphone health. Google Nest Hub emits ultrasonic pulses from the speaker to perform microphone diagnostics.
• Device hardware diagnostics. This gives us insight into the memory and CPU on the device and how they affect device performance.

Usage stats and information

• Device interactions. On our connected home devices, such as speakers and displays, we collect device interactions (taps, button presses) to understand how users are using our devices and to monitor and improve performance and reliability. For our devices with Google Assistant built-in, we also collect performance information about each Assistant interaction. For more information on what data Google Assistant collects, read data security and privacy for Assistant devices.
• Media sessions. We collect the number and lengths of media playback sessions, and media applications used.
• Reboots and factory resets. We count the number of reboots and factory resets initiated in order to monitor the reliability of our devices.
• Partner service usage data. We collect usage information about our and our partners' services that are integrated with our devices, and share that information with our partners for debugging purposes. We do not collect the specific content being played, although the media service partner may do this.

When you choose to share device stats and other information, you help improve how Assistant interacts and communicates for everyone when you use your Nest Hub Max. Once you opt-in, a technology called Federated Learning helps Assistant learn how to improve interactions with you, such as automatically adjusting your volume for ambient conditions. Federated Learning allows Assistant to update our machine learning models without sending the text you speak, images from your camera (if you enable camera sensing), or other data from your devices back to Google servers for such learning. Assistant trains the model on your device, and sends a summary of the model changes to Google servers. These summaries are aggregated across many users to provide a better model for everyone. Assistant will only use camera data to train models on-device if you have camera sensing enabled.

Crash reports and other information

• Device attributes. We collect basic information about your device hardware model and software version.

• Actively running processes. We collect information about when your device crashed, which system process crashed, and what other processes were actively running at the time.

Information Google always collects

Certain device information is necessary to enable performance and reliability of our connected home devices and services and we always collect it, even when you choose not to share device stats and crash reports, such as:

• Device attributes. We collect basic information about your device type, including model number and build version.

• Activation date and connection status. This records the date when your device was activated, and whether or not it is connected to the internet.

• Security information. To quickly resolve any security device errors or outages, we collect information about some security interactions (e.g., camera streaming timestamps).

This data is handled as explained in the Google Privacy Policy and the Google Nest Privacy Help Center article.

How this information is used

When you turn the "Help improve your device" setting on, we use this information to improve the performance and reliability of our products and services, including services provided by our partners.

Change your privacy settings

To change your privacy settings for a device after the initial setup:

1. Make sure your mobile device or tablet is connected to the same Wi-Fi or linked to the same account as your Google streaming devices, or speaker or display.
2. Open the Google Home app .
3. Tap and hold your device's tile.
4. Tap Settings Recognition & sharing.
5. Turn on Send [device model] device usage and crash reports to Google. (Example: Send Google Home device usage and crash reports to Google.)

Google Home App

Information collected when you use your Google Home app with your Google Account is not subject to this "Help improve your device" setting. Instead, data collected by the Home app is explained in the Google Privacy Policy and our Google Nest Privacy Help Center Page.

If your Web & App Activity is turned on, we save your activity on Google sites and apps (including the Google Home app), to give you more personalized experiences across Google services. You can turn Web & App Activity off at any time by going to myactivity.google.com.