Google’s search by image feature is pretty cool, even though sometimes it confuses me with a porn star.

A user asked in a Google Web Search Help thread, what does Google do with the images you upload to the search by image feature?

What if you are uploading private photos just to make sure those images are not on the internet. What does Google do with those images?

The FAQs say, “When you use Search by Image, any images that you upload and any URLs that you submit will be stored by Google and treated in accordance with our Privacy Policy. Google uses those images and URLs solely to provide and improve our products and services.”

Kelly from Google answered this question in a bit more detail in the forums, saying:

So you’d have to assume the images are stored for as long as they store their log files, which is “anonymizing IP addresses after 9 months and cookies in our search engine logs after 18 months.” But there is nothing specific if those images are ever deleted.

Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.