Google warns users to avoid telling personal stuff to Gemini AI

Google

The Gemini app, previously called Bard, is set to be the next-gen digital assistant on Android devices. This new AI-focused setup is expected to make using your smartphones and other devices much smarter and simpler.

However, these AI apps also come with a risk, as Google’s new privacy warning clearly shows. This warning, from the Gemini Apps Privacy Hub, makes it very clear that when you use Gemini applications, Google collects the following information:

Conversations
Location
Feedback
Usage information

Google also mentions that the information they collect helps them offer, enhance, and develop products, services, and machine learning technologies.

It’s the first point that might worry some people. Who can see your Gemini chats? Here’s what Google says:

“We take your privacy seriously, and we do not sell your personal information to anyone. To help Gemini improve while protecting your privacy, we select a subset of conversations and use automated tools to help remove user-identifying information (such as email addresses and phone numbers).”

Regarding the warning, in the section titled “Your data and Gemini Apps,” you’ll see this sentence:

“Please don’t enter confidential information in your conversations or any data you wouldn’t want a reviewer to see or Google to use to improve our products, services, and machine-learning technologies.

Gemini Apps conversations that have been reviewed by human reviewers are not deleted when you delete your Gemini Apps activity because they are kept separately and are not connected to your Google Account. Instead, they are retained for up to three years.”

What’s the bottom line? Put simply, you should absolutely take Google’s warning seriously and never share sensitive information in your Gemini conversations. Period.

This new warning makes it crystal clear that Google not only strongly advises against adding sensitive information to Gemini interactions but also that every “chat” you have with the app will be stored on Google servers for three years. One of the final statements in the warning is:

Don’t enter anything you wouldn’t want a human reviewer to see or Google to use.

Rohan Sharma