Starting from December 10, 2019, our Terms of Service are updated globally. (If you live in the European Economic Area or Switzerland, your terms were updated on July 22.) These updates are to make the Terms of Service easier to read and understand. There’s no change to your experience on YouTube, the features you have access to, or, if you’re a monetizing creator, how you’re paid.
Why did you change the Terms of Service?
It’s been a while since we updated our terms, so we want to ensure they reflect the YouTube product today. We also wanted to make them more transparent and user-friendly.
What are the main changes?
We’ve provided a full summary of changes but in short:
- Improved readability. While it’s still a legal document, we’ve done our best to make the Terms clearer and easier to understand.
- Improved transparency and communication. We’ve added some useful links to help you navigate YouTube, including links to our policies. We’ve also included additional commitments to let you know about changes that may affect you, such as future changes to the Terms or the service.
- Your Content. We’ve clarified the content license you grant us to make it easier to understand. We’re not asking for additional permissions and there’s no difference in how we’re using your content.
- Our product today. We’ve made some updates to better reflect the way YouTube operates. For example, we’ve removed outdated descriptions and provided helpful details about our service with links to the Help Center.
- Age requirements. We’ve clarified the age requirements to reflect our Google wide policies. If you’re under 18, you must always have your parent or guardian’s permission before using YouTube.
Will this affect monetization?
No, there are no changes to monetization in our new Terms of Service.
Does this have to do with the European Union Copyright Directive or GDPR?
No, this doesn’t have anything to do with the European Union Copyright Directive or GDPR.
What does this mean for my privacy or data?
We haven’t made any changes to the way we treat your information. You can read about our privacy practices by reviewing the Privacy Policy and YouTube Kids Privacy Notice. As a reminder, you can always review your privacy settings and manage your data and personalisation by visiting your Google Account.