Google Gemini AI Sparks Privacy Debate by Accessing User Files

Kevin Bankston, Senior Advisor on AI Governance, recently highlighted potential privacy violations involving Google Gemini AI. According to Bankston, the AI accessed and summarized his tax documents stored on Google Drive without needing explicit permission. This claim has sparked widespread discussions about the privacy ramifications of AI within cloud services. User Encounters and Technical Hurdles Bankston shared his account on social platforms, describing how Gemini auto-generated a summary of his tax returns in Google Docs without any prompts. Attempts to disable this feature were met with incorrect guidance pointing to non-existent settings. Even after finding the right options, the issue persisted, and the AI continued to access his documents despite the settings being turned off. Just pulled up my tax return in @Google Docs–and unbidden, Gemini summarized it. So…Gemini is automatically ingesting even the private docs I open in Google Docs? WTF, guys. I didn’t ask for this. Now I have to go find new settings I was never told about to turn this crap off. — Kevin Bankston (@KevinBankston) July 10, 2024 Google’s Stance and User Instructions Google has rolled out the Gemini sidebar for its cloud suite, including Google Docs and Drive, designed to provide suggestions and analyze user files. However, unclear instructions on how to prevent Gemini from accessing personal documents have led to user frustration. While Google’s support notes explain how to utilize Gemini within Google Drive, they lack thorough steps for disabling the AI’s document access. Google suggests opting out of Workspace Labs entirely to stop Gemini from reading files on Google Drive, but many find this solution insufficient. Privacy and AI: A Growing Concern This incident raises larger questions about privacy in the context of AI technology. As AI becomes more entwined with daily tools, the risk of unauthorized access to sensitive data grows. Users demand greater transparency and more robust control mechanisms over their data when utilizing AI-driven services. Bankston’s experience emphasizes the urgent need for stringent privacy controls and clear user documentation to prevent such unauthorized data access. This problem may be widespread within Google Drive and potentially applicable to Google Docs. Bankston reported that the privacy settings for Gemini should be available but were either malfunctioning or misrepresented by the AI. After locating the settings for disabling Gemini summaries in Gmail, Drive, and Docs—which were already disabled—he found them in a different location than suggested by Gemini’s bot. The issue seems to arise after using the Gemini button on a document, which activates the AI for all similar files opened in Google Drive. Bankston theorizes that enabling Google Workspace Labs in 2023 could have overridden intended Gemini AI settings. Even if the issue is confined to Google Workspace Labs users, it raises pertinent privacy concerns.