Google warns users against sharing personal information with Google Gemini; here’s why

Google, just this month, embarked on what it is calling the “Gemini Era”. It began by renaming its Bard generative AI chatbot to Gemini itself. It is also about to launch a Gemini app for Android smartphones soon, and has quietly made it available for iPhones as well.

However, just as has been the case with ChatGPT in the past, there have been very real concerns about privacy with the Gemini platform as well. To give users an idea of just how its conversational AI platform stores, processes, and uses their data, Google recently updated its Gemini Apps Privacy Hub on its site. Here’s all you need to know.

Google Gemini: How your information is processed

A privacy notice on the Google Gemini Apps Privacy Hub states that Google keeps track of your conversations with the AI chatbot, and also collects your location data, the related services you use, as well as any feedback you provide it. However, that’s not cause for too much concern.

What is cause for concern though, is the warning that appears at the top of the Gemini Apps Hub page, which urges users not to share any personal information with Gemini, to avoid letting any human reviewers see the same.

Yes, human reviewers. The company uses human reviewers who read, summarise, and process user conversations with Gemini. While the company claims that these conversations are disconnected from your Google account, it also says that they are stored by these trained reviewers for up to three years.

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Additionally, Google also says that it filters out and removes any personal information, especially about one’s bank accounts, credit cards, etc. before these conversations are passed along to the reviewers. However, it says it is capable of doing so only up to a certain extent.

How to avoid potential misuse of your information on Google Gemini

To avoid your information going into the wrong hands then, it is perhaps a good idea to always keep a check on just what you are sharing with Google Gemini. To further enhance your safety though, Google also allows you to turn off all Gemini app activity on the Apps Hub page, so to ensure your future conversations are not sent ahead for human review.

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The company is doing this in a bid to increase transparency with users. Back in 2020, the company faced a $5 billion lawsuit on charges of collecting user data through its services in incognito mode, and not disclosing it to its users. Following this, it updated its Incognito mode homepage on Chrome, to ensure users knew that incognito mode wasn’t as preivate as they may have thought.