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The privacy support pages for Google Gemini caution users that data shared with Gemini Apps might undergo human review and could be incorporated into AI training sets. Here’s what you should be aware of and what steps you can take to mitigate this risk.
Gemini refers to the underlying technology powering the Google Gemini Android App on Google Play, a feature within the Apple iPhone Google App, and a standalone chatbot known as Gemini Advanced.
Gemini on mobile devices and the standalone chatbot are multimodal, meaning users can query it using images, audio, or text input. Gemini can respond to inquiries about real-world objects, perform actions, and provide information or instructions based on images. However, it’s important to note that all data, whether in the form of images, audio, or text, is submitted to Google, where some of it may undergo human review or be incorporated into AI training datasets.
Gemini Apps utilize past conversations and location data to generate responses, which is a standard practice. Additionally, Gemini collects and stores this data to enhance other Google products. Here’s what the privacy explainer page states about it:
“Google gathers your Gemini Apps conversations, along with related product usage information, details about your location, and feedback provided by you. This data is utilized, in accordance with our Privacy Policy, to deliver, refine, and advance Google products and services, as well as machine learning technologies, including Google’s enterprise products like Google Cloud.”
According to Google’s privacy explainer, this data is retained in a user’s Google Account for a period of up to 18 months. Users have the option to limit the storage duration to either three months or 36 months.
Furthermore, users can opt to disable the saving of data to their Google Account:
“If you prefer to use Gemini Apps without storing your conversations in your Google Account, you can deactivate your Gemini Apps Activity.
…Even with Gemini Apps Activity turned off, your conversations will still be retained with your account for up to 72 hours to enable Google to provide the service and process feedback. However, this activity will not be visible in your Gemini Apps Activity.”
However, there exists an exception to the aforementioned rule that permits Google to retain the data for a longer period.
Google’s Gemini privacy support page clarifies that user data reviewed and annotated by human reviewers is stored by Google for a duration of up to three years.
“How long is reviewed data retained:
Gemini Apps conversations that undergo review by human reviewers (along with feedback and related data such as language, device type, or location information) are not removed when you delete your Gemini Apps activity. This is because they are kept separately and are not linked to your Google Account. Instead, they are retained for up to 3 years.”
Additionally, the mentioned support page highlights that data reviewed and annotated by humans is utilized to construct datasets for Chatbots:
“These datasets are then utilized to create an enhanced dataset for generative machine-learning models. This enables our models to generate improved responses in the future.”
Google’s Gemini privacy explanation page emphasizes caution regarding the sharing of confidential information. It outlines the process wherein human reviewers analyze and process conversations within Gemini Apps to enhance product quality, particularly the generative machine-learning models powering these apps. Google undertakes measures to safeguard user privacy during this review process, including disconnecting conversations from Google Accounts before review.
Users are strongly advised against inputting confidential information or data they wouldn’t want reviewers or Google to access for product improvement purposes. This encompasses any content deemed sensitive or data that users prefer not to contribute to Google’s product enhancement efforts.
Although users can opt out by disabling Gemini Apps Activity to prevent their data from being reviewed by humans, Google still retains data for up to 72 hours as a backup measure and for sharing purposes with other Google services and potential third-party services users interact with via Gemini.
Using Gemini can initiate a ripple effect where other apps start utilizing and storing user conversations, location data, and additional information.
The Gemini privacy support page clarifies:
“Disabling this setting or erasing your Gemini Apps activity does not necessarily halt other settings, such as Web & App Activity or Location History, from continuing to store location and other data during your usage of other Google services.
Moreover, when integrating and utilizing Gemini Apps alongside other Google services, these services will retain and utilize your data to enhance their offerings, adhering to their respective policies and the overarching Google Privacy Policy. Similarly, if Gemini Apps are employed to engage with third-party services, these services will handle your data according to their individual privacy policies.”
The same Gemini privacy page provides links to content removal requests, a Gemini Apps FAQ, and a Gemini Apps Privacy Hub for further information.
Numerous ways in which Gemini utilizes data serve legitimate purposes, such as facilitating human reviews. However, Google’s own Gemini support pages explicitly caution users against sharing any confidential information that could potentially be accessed by a human reviewer or incorporated into an AI training dataset.
Original news from SearchEngineJournal
