Google's Gemini May Be Accessing User Documents on Google Cloud Without Permission

The past few years have witnessed significant advancements in Artificial Intelligence (AI), with prominent examples like Microsoft's Copilot and Google's Gemini. While these technologies offer new opportunities, they also raise privacy concerns associated with generative AI.

Recently, a claim from Kevin Bankston, reported by Tom's Hardware, has spotlighted a potential privacy issue with Google’s Gemini AI. Google announced the integration of Gemini sidebar into its cloud applications, including Google Docs and Drive. This sidebar feature enables Gemini to monitor user activity, provide suggestions, and analyze files. However, in Kevin's experience, Gemini accessed and summarized his tax documents without his explicit permission.

Kevin shared that Gemini had summarized his tax PDF without being prompted to do so. When he sought to disable the setting, Gemini directed him to non-existent settings. Although Kevin eventually found the correct setting, it was already disabled, meaning Gemini should not have been able to access and summarize the documents. Google's support documents detail how to use Gemini in Google Drive but fail to explain how to disable the feature or prevent Gemini from accessing stored data.

In a follow-up tweet, Kevin suggested a method to stop Gemini from reading data on Google Drive by disabling Gemini extensions. Despite turning off the Google Workspace extension, Kevin found that Gemini could still read and summarize all the documents on his Drive account. Google’s current advice for those wanting to prevent Gemini from accessing their documents is to opt out of Workspace Labs entirely.