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 has posted your personal information or uploaded a video of you without your consent, you should contact the uploader and ask them to remove the content. If you can’t reach an agreement with the uploader, or if you're uncomfortable contacting them, you can request to have the content removed based on our Privacy Guidelines. 

Criteria for removing content

Our Privacy Guidelines provide a detailed explanation of our privacy complaint process and the factors we take into account when evaluating privacy claims.

For content to be considered for removal, an individual must be uniquely identifiable. If you want to use the privacy complaint process, make sure that you are uniquely identifiable within the content you seek to report before proceeding. 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.

Tips on how to protect your privacy on YouTube:

  • Think carefully before you post personal information. This includes things like 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 contacts you pretending to be from YouTube.
  • Get permission first. As a rule of thumb, you should 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.
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