Note that this is specifically Consumer Gemini with Connected Apps; Workspace Gemini (and Workspace Intelligence, the RAG thing for enterprise/Workspace) still claims not to be subject to human review:
So basically if you use consumer Gemini and specifically authorize the GMail app, for example, then it will sometimes use the GMail tool to load your mail from GMail, and that data (like all data in consumer Gemini) might be given to the human annotation pipeline.
This whole thing seems deeply stupid to me from Google's standpoint, although they've never been good at product management - there's _way_ too much nuance to what's going on and even if they aren't technically affected, this kind of thing will almost surely make their paying enterprise customers leery.
bri3d
Really frustrating that our privacy eroded to the point anyone would think this is reasonable.
But it does explain some conversations with Gemini when I wonder why it's talking about particular things. Like asking it about consultation processes for changes to parks only to get a response that's uncannily tuned to the email I got prompting the enquiry.
No mention of I just read your emails etc .
rustyhancock
It's worse than that.
> Google Photos data is used to infer your interests, relationships to people in your photos, and where you've been, including by associating your face with corresponding location data and timestamps. This data is also used to do things for you, like look up your info or add items to your grocery list, and to improve Google services, including training generative AI.
How does that work exactly if the images aren't even real and are generated by AI? When Google siphons up these photos to help them train their AI, the AI is now going to make associations as depicted in that photograph?
That you really were with that person, in that place, in that situation, on that date? As some sort of a fact?
Can someone else create that image and just put it in their library and then have that become a fact on your behalf when picked up, analyzed and trained on?
> This data is used to create personal insights about you, your relationships, and the people and things in your world. For example, depending on your settings, your Google Photos data is used to infer your interests, relationships to people in your photos, and where you've been, including by associating your face with corresponding location data and timestamps. This data is also used to do things for you, like look up your info or add items to your grocery list, and to improve Google services, including training generative AI.
> How your Connected Apps data is used to improve Google services
> Gemini Apps activity, which includes data from apps you connect, is used to improve Google services for everyone, including by training generative AI models, if your Keep Activity setting is on.
> When connected to Gemini, a subset of Connected Apps data processed by Gemini is reviewed by human reviewers (including trained service providers) to debug our services, help keep them safe, and improve them.
> Human reviewers improve Google services, including generative AI. Reviewers assess if Gemini responses were low-quality, inaccurate, or harmful. They also suggest better responses. We use their suggestions to help our models respond better in the future.
> Important: Please don't connect your apps to Gemini Apps if they contain confidential information that you wouldn’t want a reviewer to see.
terom
Any tool having manual human reviewers or annotator like all of Gemini and notebooklm (now Gemini notebook) suffer from this. Your data has high chance being read by random people or being leaked for training because they might flag it then use it to "improve" the model.
hek2sch
In the name of the AI race we are taking a lot of shortcuts (privacy, quality, commercial viability etc). As anyone in software knows, the debt will eventually become due.
whatever1
Google and the companies it considers its competitors in a given space (e.g. primarily Microsoft in "workspace" and cloud storage, for example) have already demonstrated for over a decade that they're willing to use any data you store in their services for any purpose they feel like, and often much of this is written into EULAs, but also it doesn't seem to matter if it isn't. I hope that if this is your first exposure to this basic fact, it encourages you to stop trusting google and look for alternatives with auditable guarantees
advael
In my perspective the interconnection between all their services paired with lingering danger of all encompassing ban in case of perceived misuse is serving as big deterrent - I won't be trying any Gemini or AI offer from them because I don't want to have all my accounts banned without recourse in case of for example some incorrectly interpreted "cyber" usage.
pxtail
That's just irresponsible. If this is anything like old Google search reviews (Appen, etc.) then they will hire anyone as a contractor. I don't want my data being reviewed by some random person.
fierycatnet
Any one trusting Google, Facebook with their data is wilfully blind. Their whole business model and survival based on spying on others data.
comments (10)
https://knowledge.workspace.google.com/admin/generative-ai/g...
So basically if you use consumer Gemini and specifically authorize the GMail app, for example, then it will sometimes use the GMail tool to load your mail from GMail, and that data (like all data in consumer Gemini) might be given to the human annotation pipeline.
This whole thing seems deeply stupid to me from Google's standpoint, although they've never been good at product management - there's _way_ too much nuance to what's going on and even if they aren't technically affected, this kind of thing will almost surely make their paying enterprise customers leery.
bri3d
But it does explain some conversations with Gemini when I wonder why it's talking about particular things. Like asking it about consultation processes for changes to parks only to get a response that's uncannily tuned to the email I got prompting the enquiry.
No mention of I just read your emails etc .
rustyhancock
> Google Photos data is used to infer your interests, relationships to people in your photos, and where you've been, including by associating your face with corresponding location data and timestamps. This data is also used to do things for you, like look up your info or add items to your grocery list, and to improve Google services, including training generative AI.
How does that work exactly if the images aren't even real and are generated by AI? When Google siphons up these photos to help them train their AI, the AI is now going to make associations as depicted in that photograph?
That you really were with that person, in that place, in that situation, on that date? As some sort of a fact?
Can someone else create that image and just put it in their library and then have that become a fact on your behalf when picked up, analyzed and trained on?
Where does that all lead?
EMM_386
> How your data is used
> This data is used to create personal insights about you, your relationships, and the people and things in your world. For example, depending on your settings, your Google Photos data is used to infer your interests, relationships to people in your photos, and where you've been, including by associating your face with corresponding location data and timestamps. This data is also used to do things for you, like look up your info or add items to your grocery list, and to improve Google services, including training generative AI.
https://support.google.com/gemini/answer/16836988#common_que...
> How your Connected Apps data is used to improve Google services
> Gemini Apps activity, which includes data from apps you connect, is used to improve Google services for everyone, including by training generative AI models, if your Keep Activity setting is on.
> When connected to Gemini, a subset of Connected Apps data processed by Gemini is reviewed by human reviewers (including trained service providers) to debug our services, help keep them safe, and improve them.
> Human reviewers improve Google services, including generative AI. Reviewers assess if Gemini responses were low-quality, inaccurate, or harmful. They also suggest better responses. We use their suggestions to help our models respond better in the future.
> Important: Please don't connect your apps to Gemini Apps if they contain confidential information that you wouldn’t want a reviewer to see.
terom
hek2sch
whatever1
advael
pxtail
fierycatnet
gla67890543