YouTube Privacy Guidelines: Protecting Your Identity
We want you to feel safe when you're on YouTube, which is why we encourage you to let us know if videos or comments on the site violate your privacy or sense of safety.
If someone posted your personal information or uploaded a video of you without your knowledge (including in private or sensitive circumstances), ask the uploader to remove the content. If you can’t reach an agreement with the uploader, or if you're uncomfortable contacting them, you can follow the Privacy Complaint Process to request to have the content removed based on our Privacy Guidelines.
Report AI-generated or other synthetic content that looks or sounds like you: If someone has used AI to alter or create content that looks or sounds like you, you can ask for it to be removed. In order to qualify for removal, the content should depict a realistic altered or synthetic version of your likeness. We will consider a variety of factors when evaluating the complaint, such as:
- Whether the content is altered or synthetic
- Whether the content is disclosed to viewers as altered or synthetic
- Whether the person can be uniquely identified
- Whether the content is realistic
- Whether the content contains parody, satire or other public interest value
- Whether the content features a public figure or well-known individual engaging in a sensitive behavior such as criminal activity, violence, or endorsing a product or political candidate
To start a report, follow the Privacy Complaint Process for altered or synthetic content. Learn more about altered or synthetic content labels.
Criteria for removing content
Our Privacy Guidelines give a detailed explanation of our privacy complaint process. It also explains the factors we consider when evaluating privacy claims.
For content to be considered for removal, an individual must be uniquely identifiable and that individual, or their legal representative, must submit the complaint. If you want to use the Privacy Complaint Process, make sure that you're uniquely identifiable within the content when using the privacy complaint process. When assessing if an individual is uniquely identifiable, we consider the following factors:
- Image or voice
- Full name
- Financial information
- Contact information
- Other personally identifiable information
When you report a privacy complaint, we consider public interest, newsworthiness, and consent as factors in our final decision, as well as whether the videos show a person’s moment of death or critical injury.
To respect the privacy and memory of deceased users, we consider requests from the closest family members or legal representatives upon verification of the individual’s death.
Tips on how to protect your privacy on YouTube:
- Think carefully before you post personal information. This includes examples such as the town you live in, where you go to school, and your home address.
- Protect your account data and don’t share your password with others. YouTube employees will never ask you for your password. Don’t be fooled if someone reaches out to you pretending to be from YouTube.
- Get permission first. Get permission before filming other people or posting their personal information.
- Visit our Privacy and Safety Settings page for a list of tools that you can use to manage your content and experience on the site.
- Check out best practices for keeping your Google Account secure.
- Stronger security for Google account: Keep your accounts secured through 2-Step Verification.