Google uses Gemini AI to track users’ private communications accused in lawsuit

By Anjali Sharma

NEW YORK – Tech giant Google on Wednesday is accused of using its Gemini AI assistant to unlawfully track the private communications of users of its Gmail, instant messaging, and videoconference programs.

Google was alleged in a lawsuit that in the past, users of Gmail, Chat, and Meet were given the option to turn on Google’s artificial intelligence program.

According to the complaint filed in federal court in San Jose, California, in October, the Alphabet Inc. unit secretly turned on Gemini for all those applications, enabled it to collect private data without the users’ knowledge or consent.

It said that while the company allows users to turn off Gemini, they need to dig into Google’s privacy settings to deactivate the AI tool, according to the proposed class-action suit.

“Unless they take that step, Google uses Gemini to access and exploit the entire recorded history of its users’ private communications, including literally every email and attachment sent and received in their Gmail accounts,” the complaint said.

The suit alleged that Google is violating the California Invasion of Privacy Act, a 1967 law that prohibits surreptitious wiretapping and recording of confidential communications without the consent of all parties involved.