The rapid development of neural networks has long raised concerns among experts about ensuring privacy when interacting with such algorithms. This week, there was further confirmation that these fears are not in vain. Social network user Kevin Bankster pointed out that Google’s Gemini neural network automatically scans PDF files stored in Google Drive without the user’s explicit consent.
“Just opened my tax return in Google Docs, and Gemini summarized it without permission. So… Does Gemini automatically scan even personal documents I open in Google Docs? <…> I didn’t ask for this. Now I need to find new settings that were never communicated to me to disable this,” Bankster wrote on his Network X account.
Unclear Privacy Settings
What exactly caused Gemini to behave this way is not yet clear. According to the algorithm itself, the privacy settings used to inform Gemini should be publicly available, but this is not the case. This could mean that either the algorithm is producing false information or that some of Google’s internal systems are clearly not functioning correctly. In any case, this does not look very good, even if we assume that the neural network does not use users’ personal data for training.
User Actions and Potential Causes
As for Bankster, after some time, he wrote that he was able to find an option in the settings that, when activated, allows Gemini to scan documents in Gmail, Google Docs, and Google Drive, adds NIXsolutions. At the same time, he noted that the option was disabled, but for some reason, the algorithm still scanned the document and created a generalized text based on it. Bankster believes the problem may be due to the fact that he signed up for Google Workspace Labs in 2023, which may have caused Gemini’s settings to not apply correctly.
We’ll keep you updated as more information becomes available about this issue.