Setting the Global Standard for Privacy in Autonomous Mobility
At Waymo, our mission is to be the world’s most trusted driver, and that means more to us than merely holding safety to a higher standard. It also means fostering an environment where riders and communities understand and trust how we handle their information. That’s why earning and maintaining your trust guides our data privacy practices.
As we expand to serve more riders in more places, we're sharing a reminder about how we approach privacy for our riders, our partners and those with whom we share the roads.
Building a safer, more accessible future of mobility goes hand-in-hand with building a service that is designed to respect and protect your personal information. Our commitment to privacy is built on three enduring principles:
Let our mission—to be the world's most trusted driver—determine what data we collect and why.
Give riders meaningful control over their personal information.
Safeguard the data entrusted to us.
We put these principles into practice through a number of commitments:
Privacy by Design: We build privacy into our products, systems, and processes from the ground up, with a focus on the privacy regulations in every country where our vehicles operate. Privacy is not an afterthought.
Transparency & Controls: We are open about what data we collect, why we collect it, and when it may be shared with others. We strive to continually develop and improve the tools that help our riders access, manage and, where appropriate, delete their data.
Data Minimization & Purpose Limitation: Our mission shapes our data practices. We collect what we need to operate safely and to improve our service. For example, our cameras are designed for core functions like mapping routes, delivering our services safely, and improving our technology—not to surveil people or to identify individuals through facial recognition or other biometric identification technologies.
Supporting Data Privacy Rights: We take our obligations to law enforcement seriously and will comply with requests that are supported by valid legal authority. And, we are equally conscious of the trust our riders and communities place in us, therefore we may challenge such requests if we believe they are overly broad or otherwise unenforceable.
Strict Boundaries on Vehicle Data: We do not sell personal information collected by our vehicles’ cameras and other sensors. To support our business, our digital platforms (including websites and mobile apps) may utilize standard advertising technologies. You can opt out of these standard digital marketing trackers at any time by clicking our “Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information” link or updating your settings in the Waymo app.
Continuous Improvement: We hold ourselves to these principles. Our dedicated privacy team monitors our practices, engages with regulatory developments, and works continuously to strengthen our protections and transparency. As the privacy landscape evolves, we will continue to adapt to serve our riders, the communities where we operate, and the wider industry.
Our Waymo Services Privacy Policy sets out in detail the personal data we collect through the Waymo Driver, how we use it, and what rights our riders have in relation to their own personal data. We invite you to read our full Privacy Policy. And we genuinely welcome your feedback because responsible innovation means listening as well as building.
The trust you place in us to get you to your destination safely is the same trust we strive to earn in how we handle your data. It’s all part of our mission to be the world’s most trusted driver.