Gmail Program Policies

If you use Gmail with a consumer (e.g., @gmail.com) account, please also refer to Google’s Terms of Service for more information. If you’re using an account through work, school, or another organization, terms may apply based on your organization’s agreement with Google or other policies. Your administrator may be able to provide more information.

We need to curb abuses that threaten our ability to provide these services, and we ask that everyone abide 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 limiting or terminating a user’s access to Google products.

Our abuse policies are clear, and we apply them consistently to keep Gmail safe for all users. Where appropriate, we investigate reports of policy violations and take necessary action. In typical cases, investigations are narrowly tailored to the specific abuse being reported.

If your account is disabled, and you believe it was a mistake, please follow the instructions on this page.

We may take action on accounts that go above storage quota limits. For example, we may prohibit the sending or receiving of messages if you exceed your storage quota. We may also delete content from your account if you fail to reduce your storage or fail to obtain sufficient additional storage. Read more about storage quotas here.

Be sure to check back from time to time, as these policies may change.

Report abuse

If you believe an account has violated our Program Policies, there are multiple ways to report it:

• For general abuse, use this form
• For child grooming, use this form
• For copyright violations, use this form

Make sure to read the policies below to understand how we define abusive behavior. Google may disable accounts that are found to be in violation of our policies. If your account is disabled, and you believe it was a mistake, please follow the instructions on this page.

Child safety

Do not create, upload, or distribute content that exploits or abuses children. 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 behavior towards children such as:

• “Child grooming” (for example, befriending a child online to facilitate, either online or offline, sexual contact and/or exchanging sexual imagery with that child);
• “Sextortion” (for example, threatening or blackmailing a child by using real or alleged access to a child’s intimate images)
• Sexualization 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
• 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 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, you can report the behavior to Google.

Circumvention

Do not engage in actions intended to bypass our policies, subvert restrictions placed on your account, or distribute content removed in other Google products.

This includes but is not limited to:

• Creating or using multiple accounts or other methods intended to engage in a behavior that was previously prohibited.
• Publicly sharing apps suspended by Google Play Developer Policies.
• Publicly sharing videos that do not comply with the YouTube Community Guidelines.

We may take appropriate action if we are notified of circumvention, which may include restricting the sharing of files, removing access to some of our products or disabling your Google Account.

Copyright infringement

Respect copyright laws. Do not share copyrighted content without authorization or provide links to sites where your people can obtain unauthorized downloads of copyrighted content. It is our policy to respond to clear notices of alleged copyright infringement. Repeated infringement of intellectual property rights, including copyright, will result in account termination. If you see a violation of Google's copyright policies, report copyright infringement.

Dangerous & illegal activities

Do not use this product to engage in illegal activities, or to promote 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 about this content, we draw the line when the content directly facilitates harm or encourages illegal activity. We will take appropriate action if we are notified of unlawful activities, which may include reporting you to the relevant authorities, removing access to some of our products, or disabling your Google Account.

Deceptive practices, fraud & scams

Do not deceive, mislead, or confuse users for financial gain or personal harm. This includes providing instructions on, recruiting for, or facilitating scams and fraud. Deceptive content includes, but is not limited to, fake reviews, “get rich quick” schemes, advance fee, romance, sweepstakes, and investment scams.

Phishing

Do not use this product for phishing. This includes soliciting or collecting sensitive data such as passwords, financial details, and social security numbers.

Harassment, bullying & threats

Do not harass, bully, or threaten others. We also don’t allow this product to be used to engage or incite others in these activities. This includes singling someone out for malicious abuse, threatening someone with serious harm, sexualizing 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. Keep in mind that online harassment is illegal in many places and can have serious offline consequences for both the harasser and the target. 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.

Malware & similar malicious content

Do not transmit malware or any content that harms or interferes with the operation of the networks, servers, end user devices, or other infrastructure. This includes the direct hosting, embedding, or transmission of malware, viruses, destructive code, or other harmful or unwanted software or similar content. This also includes content that transmits viruses, causes pop-ups, attempts to install software without the user’s consent, or otherwise impacts users with malicious code. See our Safe Browsing Policies for more information.

Spam & bulk mail

Don’t use Gmail to distribute spam or unsolicited commercial mail. You are not allowed to use Gmail to send email in violation of the CAN-SPAM Act or other anti-spam laws; to send unauthorized email via open, third-party servers; or to distribute the email addresses of any person without their consent.You are not allowed to automate the Gmail interface, whether to send, delete, or filter emails, in a manner that misleads or deceives users.

Please keep in mind that your definition of “unsolicited” or “unwanted” mail may differ from your email recipients’ perception. Exercise judgment when sending email to a large number of recipients, even if the recipients elected to receive emails from you in the past. When Gmail users mark emails as spam, it increases the likelihood that future messages you send will also be classified as spam by our anti-abuse systems.

Violent organizations & movements

Known violent non-state organizations 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 organizations, promoting terrorist acts, inciting violence, or celebrating attacks by violent non-state organizations.

Depending upon the content, we may also take action against the user. Content related to violent non-state organizations 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.